'-^'c  ?^^^Y1^ 


^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^' 


Shelf 


BL  245  .B66  1891 
Bonney,  T.  G.  1833-1923. 
Old  truths  in  modern  lights 


OLD   TRUTHS 
IN   MODERN   LIGHTS 


OLD    TRUTHS 


IN 


MODERN    LIGHTS 


THE   BOYLE   LECTURES   FOR    1890 
WITH    OTHER   SERMONS 


T.    G.  'BONNEY,    D.Sc. 

LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  F.S.A.,  F.G.S. 

FELLOW  OF   ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE,   CAMBRIDGE,    HONORARY  CANON    OF   MANCHESTER 
AND  EXAMINING  CHAPLAIN  TO    THE   LORD    BISHOP   OF   MANCHESTER 


Hontion 
PERCIVAL   AND   CO. 

1S91 


TO  MY  MOTHER, 

WHO,    BY   HER    UNFAILING   LOVE, 

HAS    ENCOURAGED    ME    TO    LABOUR, 

BY   HER   PATIENCE   IN   SUFFERING   HAS   BEEN   A   LIVING    LESSON 

IN   THE   WAY    OF    THE   CROSS, 

I    DEDICATE    THIS    LITTLE    BOOK. 


preface 

Notwithstanding  the  well-known  proverb  about 
making  excuses,  I  must  venture  to  apologize  for  an 
obvious  defect  in  the  present  book.  The  discourses 
contained  in  it  were  written  at  different  times,  with- 
out any  idea  that  they  would  emerge  from  the  stage 
of  manuscript.  On  being  requested  to  publish  a 
volume  of  sermons,  I  selected  for  this  purpose  those 
which  appeared  to  me  to  have  more  relation  than 
others  to  questions  which  at  the  present  day  often 
exercise,  and  sometimes  disturb,  the  minds  of  thought- 
ful Christians.  Thus,  occasionally,  I  have  had  to 
choose  between  repeating  myself,  and  destroying  the 
coherence  of  a  sermon  by  making  excisions ;  and,  on 
the  whole,  I  have  preferred  the  former  course.  In  one 
case,  indeed,  the  repetition  has  been  deliberate ;  for 
the  final  discourse  in  this  volume  deals  with  a  subject 


viii  PREFACE. 

which  has  been  more  than  glanced  at  in  one  of  the 
Boyle  Lectures.  But  as  I  think  the  matter  one  of 
considerable  interest,  and  do  not  remember  to  have 
read  anj^  discussion  of  it  from  quite  the  same  point  of 
view,  I  have  ventured  to  hope  that  a  more  full  treat- 
ment than  was  permitted  by  the  limits  of  those 
lectures  might  be  of  interest  to  some  readers. 

I  wish  also  to  state  that  if  any  resemblances  be 
observed  between  passages  in  this  book  and  the  well- 
known  work  entitled  LvbX  Mundi,  they  are  for- 
tuitous. As  the  dates  appended  will  show,  most  of 
these  sermons,  except  the  Boyle  Lectures,  were 
written  before  that  work  was  published.^  As  it 
happened,  when  I  was  asked,  unavoidably  at  rather 
short  notice,  to  undertake  to  give  those  lectures,  I  had 
been  so  much  engaged  as  to  be  unable  to  find  time 
to  read  Lux  Mundi.  Hence,  as  I  was  even  then 
greatly  pressed  by  my  ordinary  duties,  I  thought  it 
best  to  follow  my  usual  plan  in  like  circumstances, 

^  Six  of  them  were  preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  in  1889, 
when  the  Rev.  W.  Page  Roberts  was  absent  for  three  months  owing 
to  a  serious  illness. 

Three  of  the  sermons  in  this  volume  have  been  published  in  the 
Church  of  England  Pulpit,  and  I  am  indebted  to  the  courtesy  of  the 
E'litor  for  permission  to  reprint  them. 


PREFACE.  ix 

namely^  to  confine  my  reading  to  books  which  would 
be  more  likely  to  impugn  than  to  maintain  my  own 
views. 

Lux  Mundi  marks,  in  my  opinion,  an   important 
epoch   in   the   history   of   religious   thought    in   the 
present  century.    It  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  prognostic 
of   a   coming    reformation,   and    can    hardly  fail   to 
produce  effects   more   far-reaching   than   perhaps  its 
authors   either  foresaw  or   have  even   yet   foreseen. 
Common  report  reckons  them  in  the  ranks  of  what 
is  usually  called  the  High  Church  party.      In  their 
book   the  necessity  of  applying   scientific   principles 
to  the  treatment  of  theological  questions  is  virtually 
admitted.     This  concession   will  be  found,   I   think, 
either  to  place  them  in  an  extremely  unstable  posi- 
tion  between   the   conflicting  claims   of  reason  and 
authority,  or  to  force  them  irresistibly  to  abandon 
much  which  has  hitherto  been  regarded  by  their  own 
party  as  of  primary  importance.     They  have  given 
up,  so  to  say,  a  position  which  was  the   key  of  their 
defence,  and  its  abandonment  will  render  untenable 
a  rather  imposing  line  of  outworks.     This  probably 
has   been    perceived   by    some    of  the    more   keen- 
b 


X  PREFACE. 

sighted  among  the  High  Church  party,  and  has  been 
the  real  cause  of  the  vehement  indignation  which 
the  book  has  aroused  in  certain  quarters. 

It  is  quite  true — and  on  this  matter  we  should  be 
agreed — that  no  small  part  of  the  faith  held  in 
common  by  Christians  of  various  denominations 
cannot  be  assailed  by  methods  strictly  scientific,  and 
is  perfectly  compatible  with  scientific  progress.  The 
spiritual  order  is  one  thing,  the  physical  order  is 
another ;  though  there  may  be  occasionally  common 
ground  between  them,  and  special  difficulties  may 
result  as  a  consequence. 

But  there  are  also  certain  doctrines  which,  generally 
speaking,  are  characteristic  only  of  particular  branches 
of  the  Church,  or  of  particular  aggregates  of  Christians, 
with  which  Science  can  make  no  truce,  and  to  which 
she  will  show  no  quarter. 

Some  of  these  have  become  exceptionally  promi- 
nent of  late  years.  During  the  present  century  two 
great  religious  movements  have  been  witnessed,  and 
we  are  now  feeling  more  than  the  premonitory 
tremors  of  a  third.  The  first  of  these,  indeed,  began 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  but  its  effects  were  more 


PREFACE.  xi 

generally  conspicuous  early  in  the  present  one.  I 
refer,  of  course,  to  the  great  ''  Evangelical "  move- 
ment, which  produced  a  stirring  in  the  "  dry  bones  " 
of  Hanoverian  Churchmanship,  the  blessings  of  which 
can  hardly  be  overrated.  It  brought  into  strong 
relief  the  principle  of  "  individualism  "  in  religion  ;  but, 
as  is  the  case  in  politics,  this  had  its  own  dangers 
and  defects.  Its  system  of  theology  was  narrow  and 
inexpansive ;  it  sometimes  came  dangerously  near 
to  beinof  tainted  with  Manichean  error :  it  insisted 
upon  regarding  nature  and  the  world  from  a  single 
standpoint,  and  thus,  as  a  rule,  dissociated  itself  from 
learning,  culture,  and  many  healthful  influences.  It 
also  overlooked  the  importance  of  historic  continuity 
and  the  value  of  corporate  action,  sentiment,  and 
influences. 

These  defects  brought  in  a  speedy  decadence  among 
its  leaders  ;  these,  of  late  years,  have  caused  its  many 
excellences  to  be  overlooked  and  forgotten.  Then 
came  the  great  "  Catholic  "  reaction,  which  was  called 
at  first  the  Oxford  movement.  Its  upholders  were 
strong  exactly  where  their  predecessors  were  weak. 
Men  found  there  was  a  place  in  religion  for  learning, 


xii  PREFACE. 

for  art,  and  for  poetry ;  that  the  Church  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  claimed  to  be  in  organic  connection  with 
that  not  only  of  the  first,  but  also  of  all  succeeding 
centuries,  and  was  in  possession  of  a  literature  which 
was  a  rich  mine  of  noble  thoughts  and  devout  aspira- 
tions. The  learning,  the  ability,  and  the  personal 
holiness  of  some  of  its  earliest  leaders  contributed 
much  to  the  success  of  this  movement,  which  stood 
in  some  respects  in  the  same  relation  to  the  former 
(though  obviously  the  comparison  cannot  be  pressed 
far)  as  does  socialism  to  individualism.  Doubtless, 
also,  some  of  its  success  is  due  to  the  attractions 
which  it  offers  to  sundry  obvious  weaknesses  in 
human  nature.  What  wonder  if  a  young  man  recently 
ordained  should  feel  the  fascination  of  "  high  views  " 
as  to  sacerdotal  authority,  when  he  is  fully  conscious 
that  only  a  few  months  since  no  one  cared  much 
about  his  opinion  on  any  question  of  importance ! 
What  wonder  if  those  Christians — a  rather  numerous 
group — who  are  afraid,  like  some  young  children,  to 
walk  without  the  supporting  hand  of  a  nurse,  should 
surrender  themselves  willingly  to  the  guidance  of  a 
"  spiritual  director  "  !     So  this   movement  has  had  its 


PREFACE.  xiii 

day  of  triumph,  which  has  surprised  those  who  had 
confidence  in  the  sturdy  independence  and  strong 
common  sense  of  the  Englishman.  But  now  a  habit 
is  growing  up,  hitherto  not  so  much  within  as  with- 
out the  clerical  order,  a  habit  induced  by  the  vast 
progress  which  has  been  made  in  scientific  investiga- 
tion and  by  the  consequent  methods  of  thought  and 
reasoning,  of  looking  at  every  question  from  the  stand- 
point of  an  unfettered  inquirer.  The  dominant  school 
is  content  with  authorities,  the  new  one  requires  facts  ; 
the  one  is  literary,  the  other  scientific  in  its  methods ; 
the  one,  like  a  lawyer,  seeks  for  precedents  and  for 
decrees;  the  other,  for  reasons  and  for  principles. 
Tell  the  former  that  a  certain  good  man,  who  died  a 
thousand  years  ago,  held  such  and  such  an  opinion, 
and  as  a  rule  he  is  satisfied;  tell  the  same  to  the 
latter,  and  he  remarks  that  the  fact  is  interesting  in 
its  bearing  on  the  history  of  thought,  but  inquires 
whether  the  people  of  that  age  had  better  means  of 
coming  to  a  decision,  or  indeed  so  good,  as  are  pos- 
sessed by  those  of  the  present. 

This  new  spirit,  before  long,  cannot  fail  to  come  into 
sharp  conflict  with   that  which  at  the    present  day 


xiv  PREFACE. 

commands  a  large  number,  possibly,  at  any  rate 
among  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  even  a 
majority,  of  adherents,  who  are  eagerly  contending  for 
and  insisting  on  tlie  primary  importance  of  those 
doctrines  and  those  methods  of  worship  which  arro- 
gate to  themselves  the  title  of  Catholic.  In  regard  to 
those  doctrines  and  practices,  especially  the  latter, 
many  zealous  advocates  appear  to  have  no  clear 
idea  as  to  their  own  position.  This  may  be  due 
to  the  influences  to  which  they  have  been  exposed. 
But  if  they  fall  into  scientific  habits  of  thought,  the 
question  will  be  presented  to  them  somewhat  in  this 
way  :  "  We  are  fighting  for  vestments,  candles,  and  a 
certain  ritual  as  keenly  as  if  they  were  almost  neces- 
sary for  salvation.  What  do  we  mean  by  our  earnest 
contention  ?  Do  we  want  these  appendages  simply 
to  gratify  an  antiquarian  sentiment,  or  are  they  really 
symbolical  of  doctrine  ?  If  the  former  only,  let  us 
disarm  opposition  by  proclaiming  their  unimportance  ; 
and  if  even  then  they  give  serious  offence,  let  us  do 
without  them.  Surely  we  are  not  worse  men  than  our 
forefathers  because  we  wear  a  different  (and  less 
picturesque)  dress  !    Besides  that,  there  is  some  reason 


PREFACE.  XV 

in  the  opposition,  for  these  practices  in  the  past  un- 
doubtedly proved  liable  to  abuse,  and  were  perverted 
into  superstition.  If,  however,  they  are  significant  of 
doctrine,  at  what  date  did  they  become  important  ? 
How  far  are  these  things,  these  ideas,  part  of  the 
charter  of  Christianity^  as  it  may  be  called,  or  only 
some  of  its  bye-laws  enacted  at  a  time  when,  as 
history  shows,  Christendom  was  not  in  a  very  healthy 
condition  ?  "  For  instance,  in  regard  to  "  eucharistic  " 
and  other  "  vestments,"  for  which  some  fight  strenu- 
ously  as  being  symbolical  of  doctrine ;  if  these  vest- 
ments prove  to  be  only  survivals  of  the  ordinary 
dress,  or  of  the  Sunday  clothes  (to  use  a  homely 
phrase),  of  an  epoch  three  centuries  at  least  after  the 
foundation  of  Christianity,  this  symbolism  must  have 
been  imported  into  them  by  a  still  later  age,  so  that 
they  are  only  artificially,  not  really,  expressive  of 
doctrine.-^     Again,  when  we  find  that  some  of  these 

*  The  fact  stated  above  is  commonly  ignored,  and  sometimes  even 
denied,  by  the  writers  of  a  certain  school,  but  its  truth  cannot  be  dis- 
puted by  any  jiersou  who  studies  antiquities  and  reads  history  in  a 
scientific  spirit.  Of  such  an  investigation  the  general  results  will  be 
found  in  the  chapter  on  "  Kcclesiastical  Vestments  "  in  the  late  Dean 
Stanley's  Christian  Institutions.  A  more  full  discussion,  with  ample 
materials  for  study,  will  be  found  in  the  late  W.  B.  Marriott's  Vesti- 
arium  Christianum.     He  brings  forward  a  mass  of  evidence,  positive 


xvi  PREFACE. 

beliefs  and  claims  for  perpetual  thaumaturgic  powers 

on  the  part  either  of  individuals  or  of  an  order  not 

and  negative,  which,  as  it  seems  to  me,  places  his  conclusions  beyond 
doubt,  viz.  "  that  in  the  Apostolic  age  there  was  no  essential  differ- 
ence between  the  dress  worn  by  Christians  in  ordinary  life  and  that 
worn  by  bishops,  priests,  or  other  clerics,  when  engaged  in  oflBces  of 
holy  ministration ;  but  that,  after  the  lapse  of  three  or  four  centuries, 
the  dress  of  ordinary  life  became  changed,  while  that  worn  in  ecclesi- 
astical offices  remained  in  form  unchanged,  though  ever  more  and 
more  richly  decorated ;  that  from  these  causes  a  marked  distinction 
was  gradually  brought  about  between  the  dress  of  the  clergy  and  that 
of  the  laity  (to  say  nothing  of  the  monastic  orders,  who  were  dis- 
tinguished from  both) ;  that  as  time  went  on  the  ordinary  dress  of  the 
clergy  themselves  came  to  be  distinguished,  in  form,  in  colour,  and  in 
name,  from  that  in  which  they  ministered,  while  at  length  a  yet 
further  distinction  was  introduced  between  the  dress  of  the  more 
ordinary  ministrations  and  the  more  splendid  vestments  reserved  for 
the  highest  offices  of  all,  and  for  occasions  of  especial  solemnity  " 
(Introduction,  p.  ii.)- 

The  remarks  above  are  not  intended  to  refer,  even  obliquely,  to  the 
recent  judgment  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the  case  Bead 
and  Others  v.  the  Lord  Bhhop  of  Lincoln  (Nav.  21,  1890).  The  ques- 
tion before  His  Grace  was  one  strictly  legal — to  decide,  not  whether 
certain  practices  were  conducive  to  edification  or  the  reverse,  but 
whether  they  were  contrary  to  the  law  of  the  land.  Of  that  judgment, 
if  I  may  be  permitted  to  express  an  opinion,  I  can  only  speak  in  terms 
of  respectful  admiration.  Personally,  I  should  have  been  glad  if  it 
had  been  found  that  more  of  the  practices  of  which  complaint  was 
made  were  illegal,  because  they  are  liable  to  be  perverted  to  supersti- 
tion ;  but  after  reading  the  judgment,  in  which  a  very  intricate  question 
is  handled  with  great  learning,  with  a  powerful  grasp,  and  in  a  spirit 
truly  scientific,  it  seems  clear  to  me  that  it  will  be  very  difficult  to 
dispute  His  Grace's  decision.  The  Church,  at  any  rate,  gains  when  it 
is  shown,  as  in  regard  to  the  famous  question  of  the  Eastward  position, 
that  the  practice  in  dispute  has  no  doctrinal  significance  at  all  (pp. 
42-45).  I  could  wish  the  judgment  in  the  case  had  been  accepted.  It 
would  have  practically  extinguished  many  controversies.     One  party 


PREFACE.  xvii 

only  cannot  be  discovered  in  the  charter  and  title- 
deeds  of  the  Church,  if  we  read  them  in  a  scientific 
though  reverent  spirit,  but  also  appear  to  be  repu- 
diated by  the  writers  of  these  documents,  and  can 
be  traced  back  to  ages  long  anterior  to  Christianity, 
when  we  find  them  to  involve  ideas  and  practices 
common  to  many  ancient  religions,  to  the  priest  of 
the  polytheist  and  to  the  Shaman  of  the  nature- 
worshipper,  are  we  not  obliged  to  confess  that  the 
like  are  excrescences  on  Christianity,  parasitic  growths 
of  which  it  had  better  be  rid  ?  ^ 

would  have  been  gratified  by  permission  to  indulge  a  taste  for  symbol- 
ism and  a  love  of  archaisms — and  the  more  they  had  read  the  judg- 
ment, the  less  their  real  gain  would  have  appeared ;  the  other  would 
have  been  able  to  quote  the  authority  of  the  chief  representative  of 
the  Church  of  England  in  insisting  that  the  ceremonies  in  dispute 
were  unimportant,  and  without  doctrinal  significance.  So  long  as  it 
is  understood  that  this  ritual  means  no  more  than  the  expression  of 
a  desire  that  all  things  should  be  done  decently  and  in  order,  that  it 
only  gratifies  sentiment,  and  does  not  inculcate  doctrine  other  than  that 
of  the  Church  of  England,  then  I  wish  not  to  interfere  with  the 
liberty  of  my  neighbour,  provided  I  am  not  compelled  to  take  part  in 
what  only  distracts  my  mind  and  hinders  my  prayers. 

'  These  concluding  remarks  are  not  intended  to  apply  to  tlie 
Church  of  England  as  a  body,  though  some  of  its  members,  if  their 
assertions  and  practices  are  to  be  taken  seriously,  cannot  be  excepted 
from  them.  That  all  things  should  be  done  decently  and  in  order  is 
an  Apostolic  precept  which  commends  itself  to  all  men  of  religious 
instinct;  but  the  elaborate  and  histrionic  functions  now  held  in  so 
much  favour  by  a  section  of  the  clergy  seem  to  me  much  more   likely 


xviii  PREFACE. 

This  is  the  conclusion  to  which,  I  think,  many 
besides  myself  will  be  led  before  long,  if  they  be- 
lieve that  the  God  of  .nature  and  of  man  is  one  and 
the  same,  and  that  methods  generally  identical  are 
to  be  employed  in  the  search  for  truth,  whether  in 
science  or  in  theology,  allowance  being  made  for  cer- 
tain inherent  differences  ;  for  in  the  latter,  induction 
must  be  founded  on  indirect  experiment  or  on  general 
observation,  while  in  the  former  the  one  may  be 
direct  and  the  other  particular. 

But  by  these  scientific  methods,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
neither  the  leading  historic  facts  nor  the  true  spiritual 
element  in  Christianity  will  be  altered.  Science 
cannot  forbid  me  to  prostrate  myself  before  that 
Almighty  Personal  Power  which  underlies  all  pheno- 
mena ;  it  cannot  reason  me  out  of  m}^  consciousness 
of  the  need  of  a  Spiritual  Helper,  and  of  the  possi- 

to  foster  superstition  than  to  encourage  devotion.  For  instance,  in  the 
Directorium  Anglicanum  (which,  as  it  has  reached  a  fourth  edition, 
must  be  regarded  with  considerable  favour  among  the  clergy),  we  find 
included  among  the  directions  for  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  the 
"  Cautels  of  the  Mass,''  and  stress  is  laid  upon  their  value.  Some  of 
the  directions  in  the  said  "cautels"  seem  to  me  much  more  like 
extracts  from  a  book  of  magic  than  directions  for  due  order  in  the 
worship  of  Him  Who  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  words  of  Christ  and  of 
His  Apostle.-i. 


PREFACE.  XIX 

bility  of  some  kind  of  communion  with  Him.  No 
doubt  it  brings  before  my  mind  more  distinctly  the 
difficulties  in  accepting  certain  facts  which  are  in- 
separable from  the  Christian  creed;  but,  notwith- 
standing these  difficulties,  when  I  contemplate  the 
whole  subject  and  remember  the  imperfection  of  our 
knowledge  even  of  that  order  of  which  our  senses 
can  take  cognizance,  I  can  accept  as  literally  true 
the  history  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Resurrection 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  can  believe  in  the  efficacy  of 
prayer  and  in  the  action  of  forces  in  the  spiritual 
order,  which  I  can  neither  define  nor  comprehend. 

We  are,  then,  I  think,  witnessing  the  opening  of 
another  epoch  of  change,  which  will  rid  the  Reformed 
Church  of  sundry  narrow  ideas  and  some  superstitions, 
the  heritage  of  older  days,  which,  after  a  long 
slumber,  have  recently  awakened  to  a  strangely  and 
lamentably  vigorous  life.  But  their  hours  are  num- 
bered. Touched  by  the  Ithuriel  spear  of  truth, 
viewed  in  the  clear,  if  somewhat  cold,  light  of  science, 
their  real  nature  will  be  revealed.  Many  a  fair 
form  will  disclose  the  ugly  visage  of  latent  paganism, 
and  the  bright  robe  of  symbolism  will  be  changed  into 


XX  PREFACE. 

the  rags  of  idolatry  and  the  talismans  of  the  Shaman. 
The  generation  to  come  will  set  more  store  upon 
the  Master's  words  than  upon  the  interpretation  given 
to  them  some  centuries  afterwards,  and  will  possess  a 
creed  which  is  both  simpler  and  more  truly  Catholic  ; 
for  it  will  think  less  of  legal  and  ceremonial  observ- 
ances, and  more  of  loving  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
of  seeking,  be  it  never  so  imperfectly,  to  tread  the 
path  which  He  has  pointed  out  by  His  Life  and  His 
Death, 

T.  G.  BONNET. 


Contents 


THE  PEESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 
AND    THEOLOGY   (Boyle   Lectures,    No.  I.). 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

PAGE 

"But  where  shall  wisdom  be  found?  and   where  is  the  place  of  under- 
standing f" — Job  xxviii.  12, 1 

THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 

AND   THEOLOGY   (Boyle   Lectures,    No.  II.). 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

"I  found  an  altar  with   this  inscription,  To  the  unknown  God." — Acts 
XVII.  23, 14 


THE  PEESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 
AND   THEOLOGY  (Boyle  Lectures,   No.  III.), 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

"  God,  Who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  in  times  past  unto 
the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son." 
— Heb.  I.  1 29 

THE  PEESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 
AND    THEOLOGY   (Boyle   Lectures,   No.  IV.). 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

"  I  came  forth  from  the  Father,  and  am  come  into  the  world ;  again  I  leave 
the  world,  and  go  to  the  Father."—ST.  John  xvr.  28, 4-t 


CONTENTS. 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 

AND    THEOLOGY   (Boyle    Lectures,   No.  V.). 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

PAGE 

"  I  delight  in  the  Law  of  God  after  the  inward  man  :  but  I  see  another  law 
in  my  members,  warring  against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into 
captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  members." — Rom.  vii.  22,  23,   .        .        59 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 

AND   THEOLOGY   (Boyle   Lectures,   No.  VI.). 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

"  The  Lord  passed  by  before  him,  and  proclaimed,  The  Lord,  The  Lord  God, 
merciful,  and  gracious,  long-suffering,  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth, 
keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin, 
and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty ;  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  children's  children." — Exod.  xxxiv,  6,  7,      .        74 

THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 

AND    THEOLOGY   (Boyle   Lectures,    No.  VII.). 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

"Be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing,  that  one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a 
thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day.  The  Lord  is  not  slack 
concerning  His  promise,  as  some  men  count  slackness."— 2  Pet.  in.  8,  9,  .        .        86 

THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 

AND   THEOLOGY   (Boyle   Lectures,    No.  VIII.). 

Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall. 

"  Remember  how  short  my  time  is :  wherefore  hast  Thou  made  all  men  in 
vain?" — Ps.  Lxxxix.  47, 98 

THE  THREEFOLD  NATURE  OF  MAN. 

Preached  before  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

"  May  your  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  preserved  entire,  without  blame,  at 
the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." — 1  Thess.  v.  23  (R.V.),  .        .        .        .114 


CONTENTS. 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE  (No.  I.). 

Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street. 

PAGE 

"All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine, 
for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness."— 2.  Tim.  hi.  16,  .      135 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE  (No.  II.). 

Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street. 

"  Tour  fathers  dwelt  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood  in  old  time,  even  Terah, 
the  father  of  Abraham,  and  the  father  of  Nachor  :  and  they  s^ervd  other  gods." 
—Josh.  xxiv.  2 148 


THE  GROWTH  OF  JESUS  (No.  I.). 

Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street. 
"And  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favour  loith  God  ani 
lan." — St.  Luke  ii.  52, 162 


THE  GROWTH  OF  JESUS  (No.  II.). 
Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street. 
"  And  Jesus  increased  in  xoisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favour  with  God  and 
»>ian."— St.  Luke  ii.  52, 175 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  PAUL. 

Preached  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
"If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hoped  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most 


pitiable."— I  Cor.  xv.  19  (R.V.), 


187 


THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA. 

Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street. 

''So  the  devils  besought  Him,  saying.  If  Thou  cast  lis  out,  suffer  us  to  go 
aivayintotheherdof  swine."— St.  Matt.  \iu.  31 203 


CONTENTS. 

THE  MIRACLES  OF  APOSTOLIC 
AND  MEDIEVAL  TIMES. 

Preached  for  the  Christian  Evidence  Society. 


PAGE 


*'  There  shall  arise  false  Christs  and  false  prophets,  and  shall  show  great 
.^igns  and  wonders,  insomuch  that,  if  it  were  possible,  they  shall  deceive  the 
wry  eZeci."— St.  Matt.  XXIV.  24 218 


THE  KAISING  OF  THE  WIDOW'S  SON. 
Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street. 

"  Jesus  said.  Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee,  Arise.    And  he  that  was  dead  sat 
itp,  and  began  to  speak." — St.  Luke  vii.  14,  15, 231 


PATIENCE  IN  WORK. 

Preached  at  the  Ordination  in  Manchester  Cathedral. 

"  Be  patient  therefore,  brethren,  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Behold,  the 
husbandman  waitethfor  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  and  hath  long  patience 
for  it,  until  he  receive  the  early  and  latter  rain." — St.  James  v.  7,  .        .        .      243 


THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD. 

Preached  in  Shoreditch  Church. 

"  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow;  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 
spin :  and  yet  I  say  unto  you,  ITiat  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not 
arrayed  likeoneof  these."— St.  Matt.  VI.  28,  22 256 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  EVIL      ....     269 
Lecture  at  St.  Philip's,  Regent  Street,  founded  on  a  paper  read  at  Sion  College. 


THE   PRESENT   CONFLICT   OF   SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY   (Boyle   Lectures,  No.  1.).^ 

"  But  where  shall  wisdom  be  found  ?  and  where  is  the  place 
of  uiideristanding?" — Job  xxviii.  12. 

We  are  living  in  anxious  times,  and  who  will  venture 

to  predict  what  event  the  next  quarter  of  a  century 

will  bring  forth  ?     Is  our  nation,  is  the  civilized  part 

of  the  world,  approaching  an  epoch  of  convulsion,  the 

birth-throes  of  a  new  order,  like  that  which,  about 

a   century  since,   shattered   the   ancient   regime   and 

changed   the  face  of  Europe;   or  will  the  clouds   of 

discord,  war,  and  revolution  roll  away  harmlessly  as 

the  light  broadens  and  brightens  to  the  more  perfect 

day  ?     Will  the  faith  of  Christendom  be  once  more 

exposed  to  proscription  and  persecution,  or  only  saved 

from    this    by   contemptuous    and    almost    universal 

abandonment ;  or  may  we  reply  in  the  words  of  the 

suffering    patriarch,   and   with   a   trust   strengthened 

by   continuous   revelation,  "  God  hath   said  to   man, 

*  Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall,  on  the  Sunday  after 
Ascension  Day,  1890. 


2  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

Behold  the   fear  of  the  Lord,  that   is  wisdom;    and 
to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding  "  ? 

I  purpose  to  speak  in  these  lectures  of  one  of  the 
above-named  possibilities,  though  they  are  all  the 
outcome  of  the  same  causes,  and  the  questions,  I 
believe,  will  receive  an  answer  in  like  accents,  whether 
it  be  for  cursing  or  for  blessing. 

The  outlook  in  reference  to  the  future  of  our  re- 
ligious belief  seems  to  me  very  fairly  expressed  in 
some  words  which  caught  my  eye  a  few  hours  before 
I  was  called  upon  to  undertake  the  responsible  duty 
of  addressing  this  congregation.  "  There  are,"  said  the 
author,!  "  two  movements  in  our  time  which  are  fre- 
quently confounded,  the  'No  Theology'  and  the 
'New  Theology,'  both  having  the  same  origin,  spring- 
ing from  the  same  intellectual  unrest  and  discontent 
with  the  past.  These,"  he  says,  and  rightly,  I  think, 
in  the  main,  "are  the  remedies  proposed  for  the 
present  condition  of  confusion  and  disorganization, 
which  may  be  summarized  in  a  popular  expression — 
the  conflict  of  religion  and  science."  Real  or  baseless, 
this  conflict  indubitably  exists;  it  cannot,  then,  be 
wasted  time  to  endeavour  to  ascertain  its  causes,  to 
investigate  their  validity,  and  to  consider  the  reme- 
dies which  have  been  proposed. 

»  Lyman  Abbott,  The  Forum,  April,  1890. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY.  3 

This  conflict — and  its  province  is  not  limited  to 
theology — is  the  outcome  of  two  principles,  as  we 
may  call  them,  which  at  first  sight  appear  to  be 
completely  antagonistic — reason  and  authority.  In 
an  ideal  condition  there  would  be  no  real  opposition 
between  these;  in  the  actual  this  is  often  inevitable, 
but  it  is  vastly  accentuated  by  the  mistakes  of  man- 
kind. It  would  hardly  be  too  much  to  say  that  the 
conflict  is  as  old  as  civilization,  and,  in  beings  such 
as  we  are,  is  an  almost  necessary  concomitant  of 
growth. 

In  the  field  of  religion — than  which,  as  the  motive- 
force  in  our  conduct,  there  is  nothing  more  important 
— this  conflict,  though  veiled  more  decorously  than 
heretofore,  is  still  active.  We  may  symbolize  the 
tendencies  which  actuate  the  two  parties  as  the 
scientific  and  the  ecclesiastical.  They  are  now,  per- 
haps, more  distinctly  antagonistic  than  was  the  case 
a  generation  since,  because  the  vast  progress  which, 
during  this  interval,  has  been  made  by  science,  using 
the  word  in  a  wide  sense,  has  led  to  a  fresh  demand 
for  enlarging  the  province  of  reason,  and  this  has 
been  met  in  some  quarters  by  a  revival  of  eccle- 
siastical pretensions  and  a  recrudescence  of  super- 
stition. 

Of    this    conflict    different    solutions    have     been 


4  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

proposed.  By  one  party  of  extremists  it  is  predicted 
that  reason  will  dispel  the  illusions  of  faith,  which  will 
be  banished  into  outer  darkness  by  the  light  of  the 
no-theology.  The  opposite  party  proclaim  the  coming 
good  time  when  unsanctified  reason  will  be  dragged 
in  chains  behind  the  car  of  triumphant  faith.  Some 
are  for  a  compromise,  and  for  a  more  accurate  de- 
limitation of  the  provinces  of  science  and  of  theology  ; 
while  others  maintain  that  no  such  definite  distinc- 
tion is  possible,  and  that  the  theology  of  the  future 
must  be  based  on  an  admission  of  their  unity  of 
origin,  even  though  a  diversity  of  function  may  be 
recognized. 

The  notion  of  antagonistic  principles  of  good  and 
evil  is  a  very  old  one.  It  has  its  attractions  for  some 
minds,  for  it  offers  an  explanation  of  phenomena  which 
at  first  sight  is  so  simple.  But  its  philosophic  diffi- 
culties are  numerous ;  its  theological  are  of  the  gravest 
kind.  On  the  present  occasion,  however,  I  need  not 
linger  to  discuss  Manichgean  ideas  as  to  the  anta- 
gonism of  matter  and  God.  Nevertheless,  we  shall  do 
well  to  remember  that  much  popular  Christianity  and 
popular  belief  is  imconsciously  tainted  with  Mani- 
chgean dualism.  Language  is  not  seldom  heard  in 
relation  to  nature  which,  if  strictly  interpreted,  would 
mean  that  the  world  was  virtually,  if  not  actually, 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  5 

tlie  work  of  an  Evil  One.  This,  however,  I  may 
discuss  on  a  future  occasion,  and  so  I  pass  on  to  the 
question  of  the  separability  of  science  and  religion. 

But  it  may  be  reasonably  asked  what  is  meant  by 
the  term  reliofion,  for  it  is  used  in  more  than  one 
sense.  To  some,  religion  means  "  cultus,"  or  the  prac- 
tice of  observances ;  to  others,  "  creed,"  or  a  collection 
of  formulated  opinions  as  to  the  Unseen  Being,  or 
what  is  generally  meant  by  theology;  to  others, 
"  reverence  or  love  for  the  ethical  ideal,  and  the  desire 
to  realize  that  ideal  in  life."  ^  To  myself  the  word 
expresses  all  these,  the  last-named  being  the  leading 
conception,  though  I  cannot  wholly  separate  it  from 
the  second — that  of  knowledge — real  or  supposed, 
because  ni}^  ethical  ideal  is  not  a  mere  summary  of 
detached  qualities,  gathered  from  observation,  but  a 
person,  or,  at  any  rate,  a  power  which  I  can  only 
contemplate  as  personified,  whatever  its  true  nature 
may  be.  I  would  employ  the  term  "theology,"  had  not 
this,  in  my  opinion,  become  too  much  specialized,  and 
separated,  in  practice,  though  not  in  theory,  from 
ethics.  Many  persons  would  tell  us  that  the  methods 
of  science  and  religion  are  different,  the  one  being 
the  province  of  reason,  the  other  of  faith;  that 
their  ends  are  different,  that  of  the  one  being  the 
^  Professor  Huxley,  Nineteenth  Century,  February,  1889. 


6  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

acquirement  of   knowledge,   that   of    the   other    the 
exercise  of  the  emotions. 

At  first  siofht  the  distinction  seems  valid.  The 
conclusions  of  science,  it  will  be  said,  are  capable  of 
verification ;  its  foundation  is  experiment.  When  it 
ceases  to  be  the  inductive  treatment  of  facts,  it  is  no 
longer  science.  Faith  is  trust  in  an  unseen,  and  in 
some  sense  unknown,  Power,  Whom  by  ourselves  we 
could  not  discover.  Who  must  in  some  way  have  made 
Himself  known  to  us.  Thus  its  basis  is  revelation. 
But  how  is  a  revelation  made  ?  It  must  be  either 
direct,  by  a  personal  intuition  or  some  kind  of  vision, 
or  indirect,  in  the  form  of  a  message  transmitted 
through  a  fellow -man.  In  either  case  how  am  I  to 
know  that  I  am  not  the  victim  of  some  deception  ? 
for  the  possibility  of  this  is  a  matter  of  experience. 
If  I  am  directed  to  compare  the  supposed  revelation 
with  beliefs  already  accepted,  this  only  shifts  the 
difficulty  a  stage  further  back,  because  I  must  ascer- 
tain why  these  were  accepted. 

Inquiry  on  that  point  would  receive  some  such 
answer  as  this :  "  They  were  accepted  at  first  because 
the  teacher  appeared  to  be  endowed  with  exceptional 
authority  of  some  kind,  and  because  it  was  felt  that 
his  doctrines  supplied  a  want  which  had  been  hitherto 
unsatisfied.     Since   then  experience   has  shown   this 


OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY.  7 

satisfaction  to  have  been  real,  not  illusory,  and  the 
new  creed  has  proved  to  be  a  motive-force  of  high 
value."  But  all  this  demands  the  exercise  of  reason  ; 
it  is  a  process  strictly  scientific,  for  it  is  a  series  of 
inductions  founded  on  ascertained  facts.  If,  then, 
faith  is  to  be  anything  more  than  a  mere  play  of 
emotion,  to  which  the  disciple  of  the  no-theology 
would  restrict  it,  there  cannot  be  any  province  from 
which  reason  can  be  absolutely  excluded. 

But  I  may  be  asked,  Do  you  consider  that  faith 
may  be  subjected  to  experiment,  like  the  conclusions 
of  science ;  that,  for  instance,  we  can  verify  the 
accuracy  of  our  belief  by  the  results  of  prayer,  a  test 
which  has  been  propounded  in  all  seriousness,  and  is 
regarded  by  some  votaries  of  science  as  a  fair  challenge  ? 
Certainly  not.  Such  a  challenge,  such  an  idea,  results 
from  a  common  but  restricted  view  of  science.  There 
are  undoubtedly  branches  of  science  where  each 
induction  can  be  tested,  as  often  as  desired,  by  direct 
experiment.  A  denial  can  be  met  by  a  demonstration. 
Such,  for  instance,  is  the  case  in  chemistry.  Did 
any  one  deny  that  water  was  produced  by  the 
combination  of  two  particular  gases,  his  error  could 
be  demonstrated  by  analysis  and  synthesis  till  he  was 
silenced.  But  even  in  such  a  science  there  are  stages 
where    direct   demonstration    becomes    less   and   less 


8  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

possible,  while  in  some  sciences  it  has  but  a  small 
place.  In  geology,  for  instance,  the  demonstration 
must  be  to  a  large  extent  indirect.  The  processes  of 
nature  are  inferred  from  observing  them  in  different 
stages  on  separate  occasions,  not  from  the  continuous 
watching  of  any  one  from  its  beginning  to  its  end. 
We  venture  to  pronounce  upon  the  past  history  of  the 
earth,  thoug^h  no  man  was  there  to  mark  its  chanjxes 
or  record  the  results.  We  people  it  with  living 
creatures,  not  because  the  exact  likeness  of  them  can 
now  be  discovered,  but  from  the  analogies  of  the  fossil 
remnants  to  the  parts  of  existing  organisms.  In 
this  science,  the  leading  principles  are  already  firmly 
established,  and  yet  they  are  inductions  mainly  founded 
on  indirect  observations,  not  on  direct  experiments. 

But  we  may  be  told  that  science  does  not  admit  of 
authority.  It  does  this,  in  my  opinion,  far  more  than 
is  generally  supposed.  We  accept  much  on  the 
testimony  of  others,  because  no  man  can  begin  every- 
thing de  novo  for  himself  Life  is  far  too  short  for 
this.  Still  it  may  be  said  that,  if  doubt  arise,  every 
step  of  the  inquiry  may  be  rigorously  tested.  To  a 
large  extent  this  is  true,  but  it  will  still  be  found 
that  many  generalizations  can  hardly  be  subjected  to 
this  process.  A  personal  element  enters  into  an 
induction    more    than    is    commonly   supposed.      It 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  9 

results  from  a  mental  process  which  often  cannot  be 
formulated,  from  the  accumulated  experience  and 
cultivated  intellect  of  the  individual.  The  lightning- 
flash  of  scientific  genius,  as  it  may  be  termed — that 
which  makes  all  the  difference  between  great  men 
and  small  men  in  science — has  much  authority  with 
a  student,  who  defers  to  it,  unless  he  feels  that  he 
possesses  facts  and  an  experience  which  were  not  at 
the  command  of  his  predecessor. 

This,  then,  brings  us  to  the  special  difficulty  of  the 
present  epoch.  It  has  not  arisen  from  new  demands 
on  the  part  of  theologians.  Doubtless  they  are  largely 
to  blame  for  the  origin  of  the  conflict ;  their  efforts  to 
subjugate  the  reason  and  tyrannize  over  the  intellect 
have  often  deserved  the  severest  censure ;  they  have 
sometimes  gone  near  to  making  Christianity  a  curse 
instead  of  a  blessing.  By  this  time,  however,  most 
of  them  have  gained  wisdom  from  experience,  though 
the  voices  of  a  foolish  few  can  still  be  heard  in  noisy 
objurgation  ;  but  the  particular  phase  of  the  difficulty 
at  the  present  time  is  the  outcome,  I  believe,  of  a 
particular  phase  in  the  history  of  science  itself 

During  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years  marvellous 
progress  has  been  made  in  the  mechanical  arts.  As 
one  result,  the  instruments  and  appliances  for  experi- 
mental  research    have   been   greatly    improved    and 


lo  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

augmented.  Direct  demonstration,  direct  investiga- 
tion, have  become  possible  in  many  matters  where 
formerly  only  indirect  proofs  could  be  obtained.  Tests 
of  extreme  delicacy,  instruments  of  extreme  precision, 
can  be  employed,  of  which  our  predecessors  hardly 
ventured  to  dream.  As  a  natural  consequence,  there 
is  sometimes  a  disposition  to  enlarge  unduly  the 
province  of  direct  experiment,  and  to  over-estimate 
the  importance  of  its  results.  Thus  arises  a  tendency 
either  to  believe  nothing  which  cannot  be  tested 
by  this  method,  or  to  suppose  that  a  statement  of  the 
sequences  of  a  process  is  tantamount  to  a  discovery 
of  its  cause.  To  go  back  to  my  former  illustration. 
It  may  be  demonstrated  to  me  that  oxygen  and 
hydrogen,  under  certain  circumstances,  combine  to 
form  water,  but  I  am  aware  that  under  other  circum- 
stances they  might  produce  something  possessing  very 
different  properties,  and  the  fact  alone  brings  me  no 
nearer  to  ascertaining  why  this  or  that  environment 
is  needful  for  the  result. 

There  is  also  another  cause,  the  outcome  of  a 
tendency  from  which  science  itself  is  beginning  to 
suffer.  The  perfection  of  our  instruments  and  the 
wealth  of  nature,  which  makes  almost  the  humblest 
organism  a  microcosm,  have  induced  many  students 
to  undertake  minutely  elaborated  investigations  in  a 


OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY.  n 

narrow  field  of  research.  A  single  animal  or  a  single 
limited  group  of  animals,  or  some  similarly  restricted 
question,  becomes  the  labour  of  a  life.  Over-concentra- 
tion of  attention  on  detail  leads  to  the  loss  of  all  sense 
of  proportion.  The  comparative  faculty  suffers,  a 
breadth  of  view  becomes  impossible,  so  that  in  modern 
science  we  not  unfrequently  meet  with  investigators, 
the  value  of  whose  inductive  work  bears  an  inverse 
ratio  to  its  conscientious  minuteness.  We  are 
beofinnina:  to  be  told,  even  in  scientific  circles,  that 
we  have  plenty  of  microscopists,  but  few  naturalists, 
many  specialists,  but  few  capable  of  generalization ; 
that  such  a  man  as  Darwin  could  hardly  be  produced 
in  the  risinof  g^eneration,  for  he  would  be  exhausted 
by  the  infinity  of  detail,  or  smothered  under  the  mass 
of  literature.  But  a  few  years  since,  one,  whose 
authority  cannot  be  disputed,^  publicly  declared  that 
science  was  now  in  danger  of  the  fate  of  Tarpeia,  that 
of  perishing  beneath  the  weight  of  the  gifts  heaped 
upon  her ;  gifts,  he  might  have  gone  on  to  say,  among 
which,  as  in  her  case,  the  metal  of  little  worth  far 
outweighed  the  gold. 

Even  the  use  of  the  term  "  science  "  indicates  a  similar 
influence.     By  many  it  is   tacitly  restricted  to  such 

^  Professor   Huxley,  Presidential   Address    to  the    Koyal   Society 
{Proceedings  of  the  Boyal  Society,  vol,  xxxix.  p.  295). 


12  THE   PRESENT  CONFLICT 

subjects  as  can  be  treated  experimentally,  in  forgetful- 
ness  that  all  inductive  treatment  of  facts  is  science. 
Thus  there  is  not  only  a  science  of  chemistry  or  of 
physics,  of  biology  or  of  geology,  but  also  a  science  of 
language  and  of  history ;  nay,  there  is  even  a  science 
of  theology,  so  that  the  hard  and  fast  line  which  is  so 
often  drawn  cannot  be  maintained. 

Hence  it  has  become  possible  for  the  theologian  to 
carry  the  war  into  the  opposite  camp ;  to  demonstrate 
that,  by  employing  the  method  of  argument  which  is 
used  against  him,  it  would  be  possible  to  discredit 
most  facts  of  history,  throw  doubts  upon  many 
conclusions  of  science,  and  plunge  ourselves  at  last  in 
one  vast  agnostic  slough  of  despond,  in  which  we 
should  be  sure  of  nothing,  except  perhaps  our  own 
state  of  discomfort,  and  even  here  might  be  uncertain 
how  far  this  were  not  an  illusion. 

It  is,  then,  my  intention  in  these  lectures  to  follow 
up  the  lines  of  thought  which  I  have  now  briefly 
indicated — to  insist  that  the  conflict  of  theology  and 
science  is  only  man's  putting  asunder  of  what  God 
hath  joined ;  that  the  difiiculties  which  are  often  felt  at 
the  present  day  cannot  be  solved  by  the  method  of 
the  no-theology  any  more  than  they  can  be  satisfied, 
unless  we  repudiate  the  use  of  reason,  by  blind  sub- 
mission to  authority;  that  we  are  not  compelled  by 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  13 

any  logical  necessity  to  follow  either  the  path  which 
leads  to  a  general  negation  of  religious  belief,  or  that 
which  leads  to  unreasoning  credulity ;  that  here,  as 
so  often  in  human  affairs,  the  via  "media  is  the  safe, 
because  it  is  the  right  way.  I  will  not  call  it  the  way 
of  compromise,  because  I  do  not  hold  that  the  due 
apportionment  of  their  rights  to  either  party  in  a 
dispute  can  properly  receive  that  name.  While  I 
admit  that  science  and  religion  are  now  often  in  con- 
flict, I  hold  that  the  time  will  come  when  they  will  be 
in  alliance,  because  each  is  a  manifestation  of  the  same 
Power;  each  is  an  aspect,  though  different,  of  the 
same  Person ;  each  reveals  to  man  the  same  God,  Who 
would  otherwise  be  unknown. 


THE     PRESENT     CONFLICT     OF    SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY  (Boyle  Lectures,  No.  II.)-' 

"  I  found  an  altar  with  this  inscription,  To  the  unknown 
God." — Acts  xvii.  23. 

More  than  eighteen  centuries  since,  in  the  focus  of 
culture  and  intellect,  this  stone  bore  to  the  passer-by- 
its  silent  testimony.  The  precise  significance  of  the 
inscription  we  do  not  know,  but  read  in  the  light,  if 
so  we  may  use  the  word,  of  the  present  age,  its  words 
strike  a  note  of  unconscious  prophecy,  utter  a  sigh  of 
mournful  pathos.  More  than  eighteen  centuries  have 
passed,  and  amid  all  the  triumphs  of  civilization,  all 
the  increase  of  wisdom,  we  are  told,  in  tones  yet  more 
emphatic  than  those  of  philosophers  of  Greece,  that 
God  is,  and  must  ever  be,  unknown.  We  are  only  so 
far  wiser  than  the  men  of  Athens  as  to  deem  it  an  act 
of  superstitious  folly  to  raise  an  altar  to  His  honour. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  sense  in  which  the  words  must 
ever  be  true ;  the  finite  cannot  measure  the  infinite, 
*  Preached  in  the  Chapel  Eoyal,  Whitehall,  on  Whitsunday,  1890. 
14 


CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  15 

the  less  cannot  comprehend  the  incommensurably 
greater.  Man's  knowledge  of  God  must  be  partial, 
imperfect,  relative ;  but  the  main  question  is,  Can  he 
attain  even  to  this  stage,  or  is  the  pursuit  only  that 
of  an  ignis  fatuus;  is  the  hope  which  has  sustained 
myriads  of  the  noblest  spirits  in  this  dark  world  only 
a  fond  delusion  ?  Nature  and  man,  science  and 
history,  present  to  us  a  host  of  problems  which  crave 
an  answer  from  every  thoughtful  mind.  "  Whence 
comest  thou  ?  whither  goest  thou  ?  "  may  be  asked  of 
everything,  of  every  personality  which  confronts  us. 
We  stand,  as  it  were,  in  the  presence  of  some  vast 
machine,  marvellous  in  its  complication,  wondrous 
in  the  beauty  of  its  products.  Yet  is  this  all  ?  Is 
there  no  meaning  in  this  kaleidoscopic  alternation  of 
birth  and  death,  no  bourne  to  which  they  tend,  no 
Heart  to  which  we  may  be  the  hands ;  but  only  an 
omnipotent  energy,  without  conscious  purpose,  without 
all-perfect  love  ? 

Among  the  solutions  which  have  been  proposed  for 
this  problem,  two  are  attractive  from  their  apparent 
simplicity :  the  one  is  named  Atheism,  the  other 
Pantheism.  The  former  "repudiates  the  theological 
doctrine  of  a  Creator  and  a  Moral  Providence.  It 
admits  no  other  existence  than  matter  and  force,  and 
of  these  it  offers  no  explanation.     They  are,  and  that 


i6  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

suffices."^  But  this  solution  need  not  now  be  dis- 
cussed, for  I  believe  that  the  majority  of  thoughtful 
men  will  acquiesce  in  Comte's  opinion  that  "  atheism 
is  the  most  irrational  form  of  metaphysics,  because  it 
propounds  as  the  solution  of  an  insoluble  enigma  the 
hypothesis  least  capable  of  proof,  least  simple,  and 
least  plausible."^  Even  if  they  cannot  accept  the 
solution  which  has  satisfied  the  Christian,  they  will 
admit  that,  to  quote  the  words  of  a  well-known  leader 
of  their  school,  "  One  truth  must  grow  ever  clearer — 
the  truth  that  there  is  an  Inscrutable  Existence  every- 
where manifested,  to  which  he  [man]  can  neither  find 
nor  conceive  either  beginning  or  end.  Amid  the 
mysteries,  which  become  the  more  mysterious  the 
more  they  are  thought  about,  there  will  remain  the 
one  absolute  certainty,  that  he  is  ever  in  presence 
of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  from  which  all 
things  proceed."  ^ 

Pantheism  asserts  that  all  is  God.  This  is  an 
hypothesis  which  at  first  sight  seems  far  more  attrac- 
tive, but  its  difficulties  increase  the  more  it  is  scruti- 
nized. That  all  is  of  God  we  readily  admit,  but  to 
assert  that  "  God   is  everything,  and  everything  is 

*  F.  Harrison,  in  Fortnightly  Review,  vol.  xiv.  p.  145. 

*  Idem,  p.  146. 

»  Herbert  Spencer,  Ecclesiastical  Institutions^  §  660. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY.  17 

God,"  ultimately  breaks  down  all  differences  between 
right  and  wrong,  and  "ends,"  as  it  has  been  justly 
said,  "in  identifying  the  worshipper  with  the  Deity." 
The  marks  of  imperfection,  the  signs  of  contest  of  the 
lower  with  the  higher,  are  writ  too  large  in  nature 
for  us  to  accept  this  hypothesis  as  a  permanent  solu- 
tion of  the  difficulty,  though  we  admit  that  it  is 
rather  an  overstatement,  or  a  very  partial  aspect,  of  a 
truth  than  a  proposition  inherently  false.  Neverthe- 
less, it  is  the  outcome  of  a  confusion  of  thought,  which 
might  find  a  parallel  in  science  in  the  failure  to  dis- 
tinguish betw^een  force  and  energy,  and  while  it 
claims  to  be  the  esoteric  doctrine  of  polytheism, 
it  leads  practically,  as  experience  has  shown,  to  the 
least  mystical  forms  of  this  creed. 

But  by  many  who  are  honestly  perplexed  at  the 
difficulties  of  the  problem  a  refuge  has  been  sought, 
especially  at  the  present  day,  in  what  is  called 
Agnosticism.  He  who  adopts  this  position  may  be 
defined  as  one  "who,  having  honestly  sought  to  know, 
acquiesces  in  ignorance,  and  avows  it  as  the  best  prac- 
tical solution  of  a  profound  but  inscrutable  problem." 
He  "  protests  against  any  dogma  respecting  creation  at 
all,  and  takes  his  stand  deliberately  on  ignorance."  ^ 

It  is  a  position  curiously  different  from  that  assumed 
*  F.  Harrison,  Fortnightly  Bevieiv,  -vol.  xlv.  p.  ]44. 
C 


1 8  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

by  a  worker  in  science,  and  it  is  expressive  of  a  spirit 
directly  opposite  to  that  by  which  he  is  animated. 
Write  over  the  doors  of  oar  laboratories,  "  Leave  hope 
behind,  ye  who  enter  here ; "  write  large  upon  their 
walls,  "  No  man  can  raise  the  veil  of  Nature,"  and 
there  would  be  a  speedy  end  to  progress,  a  paralysis 
of  mind  for  the  most  earnest  of  students.  It  is  hope 
which  is  the  mainspring  of  his  work ;  this  nerves  him 
to  shun  delights  and  live  laborious  days,  to  watch  and 
to  wait  patiently  in  the  presence  of  the  most  tangled 
web  of  perplexities  and  apparent  contradictions,  confi- 
dent that  some  day,  by  another  who  has  built  on  his 
foundation  if  not  by  himself,  the  hidden  clue,  the 
long-sought  truth,  will  be  discovered.  "  I  give  it  up  ; 
it  is  an  inscrutable  enigma."  Where  would  science 
now  be,  if  its  followers  had  acted  on  this  maxim  ? 

But,  it  will  be  said,  the  analogy  is  misleading, 
because,  in  investigations  concerning  subjects  which 
theology  professes  to  treat,  we  are  debarred  by  the 
nature  of  the  case  from  making  use  of  the  methods  of 
science.  This  objection,  however,  appears  to  me  due 
to  a  misunderstanding.  From  such  investigations — as 
from  all  where  direct  experiment  is  not  applicable — 
the  instruments  of  research  are  excluded,  but  not  the 
inductive  treatment  of  facts,  not  the  science,  which  is 
wider  than  the  walls  of  the  laboratory. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  .19 

Agnosticism  owes  its  strength  at  the  present  day  to 
the  following  causes  :  First — as  I  have  previously  said  ^ 
— to  that  misuse  of  theology  which,  for  want  of  a 
better  name,  may  be  called  ecclesiasticism.  It  is  the 
result  of  a  protest,  in  itself  right  and  honest,  against 
such  a  dictum  as  this  :  "  Let  us  maintain  before  we  have 
proved ;  "  ^  or  this,  "  Religious  error  is,  in  itself,  of  an 
immoral  nature."  There  is,  indeed,  a  sense  in  which 
the  one  statement  may  be  justified,  the  other  reduced 
to  a  truism,  but  this  is  not  the  one  usually  intended 
or  understood.  That  ecclesiasticism  is  the  reah  foe 
is  admitted  by  a  living  advocate  of  agnosticism,  who 
speaks  as  follows :  "  With  scientific  theology  agnos- 
ticism has  no  quarrel.  .  .  .  But,  as  between  agnosticism 
and  ecclesiasticism,  or,  as  our  neighbours  across  the 
Channel  call  it,  clericalism,  there  can  be  neither 
peace  nor  truce."  ^  Be  it  so.  I  have  read  and  even 
seen  too  much  of  the  mischief  wrought  by  presump- 
tuous ignorance  and  sacerdotal  arrogance  to  desire  to 
hold  back  the  axe  from  that  parasitic  growth,  for 
after  its  destruction  the  tree  of  theology  and  true 
religion  would  bear  fruit  more  abundantly  than 
heretofore. 

^  Sermon  I.,  p.  3. 

2  The    late    Cardinal   Newman,    quoted    by    Professor     Huxley, 
Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  xxv.  p.  939. 
^  Professor  Huxley,  ut  supra. 


20  THE   PRESENT  CONFLICT 

Another  cause,  for  which  the  same  spirit  is  largely 
responsible,  is  an  erroneous  view  of  the  nature  and  pro- 
vince of  revelation.  It  is  assumed — not  on  one  side 
only — that  when  knowledge  is  communicated  to  man 
concerning  something  which  he  is  incapable  of  dis- 
covering for  himself,  the  fact  that  this  proceeds  from 
the  source  of  Truth  compels  us  to  suppose  that  the 
human  element  must  be  eliminated  from  the  mes- 
senger, that  he  must  become  an  infallible  authority  on 
every  department  of  human  knowledge,  and  that  there 
must  be  nothing:  in  the  messao^e  which  is  relative  to 
the  hearers  or  appropriate  to  a  progressive  system  of 
teaching.  Thus,  it  is  assumed,  a  revelation  to  men  of 
a  different  race  and  a  lower  civilization  than  our  own 
must  be  in  terms  which  would  satisfy  the  present 
generation.  This  demand  I  pass  by  for  the  -  present, 
contenting  myself  with  remarking  that  it  involves 
an  assumption  which  appears  to  me  unwarranted, 
inasmuch  as  it  makes  the  present  century  the 
standard  for  all  ages,  and  tacitly  assumes,  in  so  doing, 
that  man  has  now  attained  to  his  full  development, 
intellectual  and  spiritual. 

Difficulties  as  to  the  evidence  for  Christianity  are, 
at  the  present  day,  another  cause  of  agnosticism.  Of 
these,  one  class  relates  to  the  authenticity  or  genuine- 
ness of  its  records  ;  the  other,  to  the  fundamental  idea 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  21 

of  Christianity,  viz.  its  so-called  miraculous  origin. 
The  former  has  received  so  much  attention  of  late 
that  on  the  present  occasion  I  feel  justified  in  refrain- 
ing from  discussing  it  in  detail,  and  in  contenting 
myself  with  remarking  that  the  result  of  scholarly 
research  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  been 
to  strencrthen  rather  than  to  weaken  the  historic 
value  of  the  early  records  of  Christianity,  and  to 
indicate  that,  if  it  be  an  illusion  or  a  fraud,  it  was 
this  from  the  very  first. 

I  pass  on,  then,  to  the  latter — the  difficulties  as  to  the 
so-called  miraculous  origin  of  Christianity.  These  I 
fully  appreciate.  I  admit  that  they  cannot  be  met  by 
direct  methods,  by  experiment  or  demonstration  ;  but 
I  believe  that  they  are  greatly  lessened  by  indirect 
treatment,  by  arguments,  negative  rather  than  positive. 

For  the  present  I  shall  restrict  myself  to  one  point 
in  the  discussion :  the  a  "priori  probability  or  im- 
probability of  a  revelation  to  man.  If  I  assume  the 
universe  to  be  the  work  of  God,  I  trust  that  I  may 
also  assume  that  He  has  not  ceded,  either  of  good  will 
or  by  force  of  conquest,  this  particular  planet  to  any 
hostile  power.  If  so,  the  book  of  nature  which  lies 
open  before  us  is  either  a  collection  of  blank  pages  or 
a  mode  of  revelation.  An  alternative,  in  favour,  I  be- 
lieve, with  some,  that  it  is  a  palimpsest  writ  large  \i\ 


22  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

the  hand  of  Satan,  seems  to  me  beset  with  such 
serious  difficulties,  so  derogatory  to  the  honour  of  God, 
as  hardly  to  need  serious  consideration.  If  the  pages 
are  blank,  then  the  study  of  nature  is  wasted  time. 
To  this,  however,  those  who  have  tried  to  read  that 
wondrous  volume  will  hesitate  to  subscribe.  Assum- 
ing, then,  that  there  be  not  only  an  Infinite  Energy, 
but  also  mind,  purpose,  love,  personality  of  a  kind — 
the  ideas,  in  short,  which  to  most  of  us  are  embodied 
in  the  word  "  God  " — we  have  in,  nature  the  expression 
of  Himself  in  a  form  capable  of  being  perceived  by 
us.  Suppose,  for  a  moment,  this  were  the  only  means 
by  which  we  could  acquire  knowledge  of  Him.  Spirit 
is  not  directly  cognizable  by  man.  This  word  im- 
plies a  mode  of  existence  which  cannot  be  tested  by 
senses  fitted  to  deal  only  with  the  material.  Hence  it 
is  not  a  subject  for  direct  experiment,  but  for  indirect 
induction.  To  use  the  well-known  simile,  it  is  inferred 
from  its  operations,  as  the  wind,  which  we  cannot 
see,  can  be  recognized  by  its  effects.  This  being  so, 
nature  is  a  mode  of  revelation,  and  thus  may  be 
made  a  basis  of  induction.  What,  then,  do  we  learn 
from  nature  ?  First,  it  discloses  a  mighty  and  far- 
reaching  system  of  education.  The  present  is  the 
offspring  of  the  past — the  heir  of  its  opportunities, 
of  its  progress,  even  of  its  errors.    Step  by  step  we  see 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  23 

unrolled  the  ancestral  pedigree  of  the  varied  forms 
of  life  which  people  this  earth,  as  science  bids  bone 
join  to  bone,  and  the  breath  return  to  the  dust,  which 
has  been  gathered  again  from  the  four  winds  of 
heaven.  We  see  the  same  law  of  growth  and  of 
development  which  has  been  concentrated  in  the  brief 
span  of  our  earlier  life,  operating  through  myriads 
of  years,  as  race  after  race  of  higher  powers  and 
more  perfect  organization  comes  forth,  fulfils  its  time, 
then  passes  away  or  falls  into  the  background,  to 
give  place  to  something  yet  nearer  to  perfection.  Can 
we  say  that  the  limit  has  been  reached ;  that  further 
progress,  physical  or  intellectual,  is  impossible  ?  This 
might,  with  equal  reason,  have  been  asserted  at  any 
one  stage  in  the  process  of  evolution  ;  it  would  have 
been  repudiated  by  the  teaching  of  experience  and  the 
logic  of  facts.  What  more  reason  have  we  in  denying 
now  the  possibility  of  anything  further,  as  we  do  if 
we  assert  that  man's  doom  is  to  seek,  but  never  to 
find? 

But  in  reading  the  book  of  nature,  we  are  conscious 
before  long  of  an  incompleteness.  Its  teaching  is 
one-sided  ;  it  favours  the  development  of  the  animal 
propensities  rather  than  of  the  ethical  faculties.  This 
was  only  to  be  expected,  for  life  is  conditioned  by 
environment.     In  this  world,  before  we  can  think,  or 


24  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

learn,  or  purpose,  we  must  be  kept  alive  and  in  a 
condition  to  use  the  faculties  which  we  possess,  what- 
ever may  be  their  cause  or  their  tendency.  The  child 
learns  first  and  of  necessity  the  laws  of  life,  because 
total  ignorance  of  these  would  mean  death ;  and  then 
those  of  thought,  without  the  knowledge  of  which  he 
cannot  be  perfectly  a  man.  The  race  receives  from 
the  natural  world  instruction  in  physical  laws,  given 
with  an  emphasis  more  marked  than  in  any  other 
branch  of  learning. 

But,  then,  history  indicates  no  less  clearly  a  moral 
development  in  the  race.  That  is  a  fact  which  demands 
an  explanation,  and  this  is  difficult  if  we  insist  on  no 
other  teaching  than  that  of  the  physical  universe. 
Moral  development  and  physical  development  are  not 
always  compatible.  They  are  the  outcome,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  of  tendencies  which  often  are  distinctly  antago- 
nistic. The  law  of  the  former  is,  sacrifice  self  for  others ; 
the  law  of  the  latter  is,  sacrifice  others  for  self  Yet 
moral  progress  is  a  fact  in  the  world's  history,  though 
certainly  the  principles  to  which  it  is  due  are  not 
inculcated  by  the  physical  order,  and  can  only,  at 
most,  be  indirectly  inferred  from  it.  Hence,  it  seems 
an  improbable  hypothesis  to  ascribe  moral  progess  to 
that  origin  only,  and  it  is  simpler  to  regard  this  as  the 
operation  of  a  Power  which  makes  for  righteousness. 


OP  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  25 

But  if  we  admit  the  idea  of  makinor  for  riorhteousness 
we  imply  an  Influence,  and  indirectly  the  work  of  a 
Teacher,  to  whom  mankind  stands  in  a  relation 
different  from  that  of  other  beings  in  the  physical 
world. 

We  find,  also,  that  in  man  desires  and  capacities 
exist — whatever  may  be  their  origin — which  can  only 
be  satisfied  by  a  sense  of  relationship  with  a  Power 
far  higher  than  himself;  a  faculty  of  religiousness,  as 
we  might  call  it;  the  need  of  an  object  of  worship,  of 
an  ideal  Being  which  is  to  be  like  the  sun  of  man's  moral 
system.  Which  is  the  more  reasonable,  to  regard  this 
as  the  outcome  of  his  comparatively  rudimentary 
stage  of  intellectual  development — a  mere  transient 
emotion,  like  that  of  a  child  for  a  toy — or  an  impulse 
to  seek  One  Who  may  be  found  ?  Nature  and  history, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  teach  us  that  demand  does  not 
generally  exist  where  there  is  no  possibility  of  supply. 
Such  existence  would  be  contrary  to  that  economy 
which  in  this  world's  order  seems  to  regulate  the 
expenditure  of  energy.  If  there  are  physical  wants 
and  moral  wants  which  may  be  satisfied,  physical 
ideals  and  moral  ideals  which  may  be  attained,  upon 
what  a  priori  grounds  can  it  be  asserted  that  the 
religious  wants  and  the  religious  ideals  are  all 
illusions  ? 


26  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

I  venture,  then,  to  put  this  question  to  the  agnostic. 
You  admit  that  the  world  is  a  place  of  education  for 
me  considered  not  only  as  an  animal,  but  also  as  a 
being  endowed  with  reason.  I  believe,  indeed,  you 
would  go  so  far  as  to  admit  the  probability  of  its 
being  also  a  place  of  moral  education.  What,  I  ask, 
is  to  be  the  motive-force  in  the  last  ?  I  might  put  it 
thus  :  "  Am  I  brought  up  or  scrambled  up  ?  "  And,  if 
brought  up,  is  this  for  a  purpose — I  speak  as  a  man — 
or  without  a  purpose  ?  If  you  affirm  the  latter,  your 
position  is  at  least  intelligible ;  but  we  must  not 
shrink  from  its  consequences.  Then  the  tale  of  our  lives 
is  quickl}^  told :  the  hope  of  a  personal  immortality  is 
an  illusion  ;  beyond  the  grave  is  nothingness.  I  may 
regret  it,  but  if  I  am  to  be  limited  to  the  direct 
teaching  of  nature,  no  other  conclusion  seems  to  me 
possible.  Her  reply  sounds  to  me  clear  and  distinct  : 
"  Death  is  the  end  of  life."  If  I  limit  myself  to  the 
results  of  my  work  in  the  laboratory  or  in  the  field, 
I  find  no  "hope  of  pardon  or  redress  behind  the  veil." 
I  must  admit  that  my  life  is  "  as  futile  as  frail."  But 
as  a  rule  you  will  not  go  so  far  as  this.  Concerning 
personal  immortality,  concerning  the  soul,  as  we  call 
it,  you  will  make  no  statement,  negative  or  positive ; 
you  will  only  say  that  you  know  nothing  about  it. 
To  deny  the  possibility  of  its  existence  would  be  as 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  27 

unphilosophical  as  to  affirm.  Indeed,  you  would 
admit,  I  believe,  that  our  hypothesis  solves  many  of 
the  enigmas  presented  by  the  order  of  this  world, 
and  supplements  what  appear  to  be  defects. 

If  that  be  so,  then  I  contend  that  my  position  is 
the  more  reasonable,  the  more  in  accord  with  the 
inductive  habit  of  science.  I  see  in  man  capacities 
physical,  moral,  and  religious ;  I  see  provision  made, 
as  I  may  term  it,  for  the  education  of  two  of  these ; 
I  see  also  that  wants  do  not  normally  exist  where 
their  gratification  is  impossible.  The  longing  after 
God  exists ;  is  it  man's  doom  in  this  one  respect  to 
stretch  in  vain  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  grope  "upon 
the  great  world's  altar  stairs  that  slope  through 
darkness,"  not  up  to  God,  but  up  to  the  vacancy  of 
unsatisfied  desire  ? 

Can  you  ofier  us  no  better  ideal  of  God  than  the 
choice  of  this  alternative  ?  Either  He  is  merely  an 
Infinite  Energy,  the  underlying  source  of  every  pheno- 
menon, in  some  sense,  of  every  aspiration  of  our  being, 
before  which,  however,  we  are  nothing  more  than  the 
most  tiny  ephemeral  insects  are  to  the  sunbeam — it 
causes  them  to  dance,  but  recks  not  whether  they  do 
it  or  no — or  He  is  One  Who  reposes  in  eternal  calm, 
far  away  from  the  world  which  He  has  made,  smiling 
perhaps  now  and  then  at  our  blindfold  stumbles  in  a 


28  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY. 

fruitless  search.  Truly  a  hard  Master ;  truly  a  Being 
very  remote  from  every  ideal  of  altruistic  excellence 
and  moral  perfection, — ideals  to  which  you  are  as 
earnest  as  we  in  urging  on  mankind ;  truly  a  centre  of 
repellent  rather  than  of  attractive  Force.  Might  we 
not  fairly  retort,  when  you  frankly  confess  that  you 
can  offer,  in  satisfaction  of  our  wants,  nothing  better 
than  this  pitiless  Power  to  guide  us  through  life's 
trials  and  difficulties — 

"  Let  us  alone.     What  pleasure  can  we  have 
To  war  with  evil  ?    Is  there  any  peace 
In  ever  climbing  up  the  climbing  wave? 
All  things  have  rest,  and  ripen  toward  the  grave 
In  silence ;  ripen,  fall,  and  cease  : 
Give  us  long  rest  or  death,  dark  death,  or  dreamful  ease."  ' 

*  Tennyson,  77ie  Lotos.  Eaters. 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY  (Boyle  Lectures,  No.  III.)} 

♦'  God,  Who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake 
in  times  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these 
last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son." — Heb.  i.  1. 

Revelation,  or  no  revelation ;  the  guidance  towards 
a  far-off  light,  or  the  blind  groping  in  a  hopeless  dark- 
ness, the  whisper  of  a  voice,  or  the  eternal  silence ; — 
which  is  the  portion  of  our  race  ?  This  is  the 
question  which  it  behoves  us  to  answer;  and  a 
negative  reply  would  make  it  needless  to  discuss  the 
evidence  for  or  against  Christianity.  Agnosticism 
admits,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  end  of  scientific 
thought  and  research  is  the  conviction  that  we  are 
"ever  in  the  presence  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Energy,  from  which  all  things  proceed."  It  appears 
also  to  admit  that,  as  an  effect  of  the  environment, 
or  by  the  discipline  of  life,  higher  faculties,  clearer 
conceptions,  and  more  profound  insights  are  de- 
veloped in  the  human  race,  which  render  it  more  and 
^  Preached  at  the  Ghapel  Royal,  Whitehall,  on  Trinity  Sunday,  1890. 


30  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

more  capable  of  formulating  for  itself  an  explanation, 
if  such  there  be,  of  the  Ultimate  Reality.  To  all  this, 
as  Christians,  we  can  heartily  assent.  We  admit  that 
in  all  the  operations  of  God,  as  we  prefer  to  call  the 
Infinite  Energy,  the  same  principle  and  similar 
methods  are  exhibited ;  that  in  religious  ideas  and 
conceptions  there  is  a  process  of  growth  which  may 
be  termed  natural,  of  evolution  which  appears  to  be 
conditioned  by  the  environment;  that,  in  the  spiritual 
as  in  the  natural  order,  the  law  of  continuity  prevails 
in  those  phenomena  with  which  our  minds  are  capable 
of  dealing.  But  the  main  difference  between  us  is 
this  :  that  to  the  agnostic,  revelation,  if  he  permit  me 
to  use  the  term,  indicates  a  process  wholly  continuous, 
the  result  of  means  which  are  neither  more  nor  less 
beyond  comprehension  than  any  other  in  operation  on 
this  earth ;  while  to  myself  the  process,  at  least  in  its 
initiation,  exhibits  discontinuity.  In  it  the  Divine 
Energy  acts,  as  it  were,  on  a  plane  different  from  that 
to  which  we  are  accustomed.  Thus  it  produces  different 
results — just  as  in  nature  the  introduction  of  a  force 
hitherto  inoperative  would  modify  phenomena ;  and  it 
has  for  its  effect  the  acquirement  of  knowledge  which, 
without  this  special  influence,  would  have  been  un- 
attainable. If  I  rightly  understand,  the  agnostic 
regards  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  religious  idea  or 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  31 

ideal,  like  the  advance  of  philosophy  or  science,  as 
beneficial  to  the  race  in  proportion  to  its  truth,  which, 
however,  can  never  be  more  than  relative.  Its  results 
also,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  must  be  limited  to  this 
life ;  for  of  anything  further  we  neither  have,  nor  can 
have,  any  knowledge.  But  the  Christian  hopes,  nay, 
believes,  that  when  the  Unknown  Energy  is  manifested 
as  a  novel  Force — which  he  calls  "  Spiritual  Power  " — 
and  co-operates  with  the  processes  which  are  termed 
"  natural,"  it  produces  in  men  a  result  which  he  can 
only  describe  as  a  new  birth,  even  to  a  life  which  is 
eternal. 

This  belief,  this  expectation,  is  commonly  judged 
unscientific.  Obviously  it  cannot  be  tested  by  direct 
experiment,  but  we  are  not  thereby  justified  in 
rejecting  it,  until  we  see  whether  or  not  it  is  dis- 
cordant with  the  inductions  which  may  be  drawn 
from  facts  which  are  part  of  human  experience. 

The  author  from  whom  I  have  more  than  once 
quoted  affirms  that  "  civilized  men  have  no  innate 
tendency  to  form  religious  ideas."  ^  The  proposition 
appears  to  me  one  which  can  be  neither  proved  nor 
disproved  satisfactorily,  but  for  our  present  purpose 
I  am  content  that  it  be  assumed.  Well,  then,  civilized 
man  has  formed  religious  ideas,  and  these  sometimes 
*  Herbert  Spencer,  Ecclesiastical  Institutions,  §  672. 


32  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

exhibit  very  remarkable  complexity.  How  came  he 
by  them  ?  They  are,  it  will  be  said,  an  evolution 
from  a  group  of  fancies  which  have  an  origin  perfectly 
natural.  But  if  so,  it  appears  to  me  an  anomaly  that 
every  marked  advance  towards  the  religious  ideal 
should  exhibit  in  its  initial  stas^e  a  kind  of  discon- 
tinuity.  Even  when,  by  investigation,  we  succeed  in 
discovering  some  of  its  components,  these  appear,  like 
certain  chemical  constituents,  to  have  been  lying  for 
long,  side  by  side,  without  action  or  result,  until  by 
some  unknown  stimulus,  like  the  passage  of  an  electric 
spark,  they  are  brought  into  combination  and  initiate 
a  series  of  consequences. 

The  history  also  of  the  new  ideal  is  hardly  such  as 
we  should  expect,  if  it  were  the  result  of  processes 
merely  natural.  It  is  one  of  desperate  struggle  for 
existence ;  and  its  foes  may  well  be  called  those  of  its 
own  household.  It  meets  with  the  most  bitter  oppo- 
sition in  the  very  quarters  which  would  have  seemed 
its  natural  home.  It  conquers,  as  it  appears,  against 
all  odds,  by  its  truth,  assuming  that  there  be  such  a 
thing,  and  that  you  can  test  it  like  any  other  work- 
ing hypothesis.  Granted  that  there  is  here  a  survival 
of  the  fittest,  yet  this  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 
ordinary  law  of  evolution,  where  the  victory  results 
from  the  special  adaptation  of  the  organism  to  the 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  33 

environments.  Here,  if  one  may  so  express  it,  the 
organism  conquers  the  environment  and  becomes 
the  master  of  circumstance. 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that,  in  referring 
any  result  to  natural  causes,  we  do  not  the  less  regard 
it  as  the  outcome  of  the  Divine  Power.  If  it  be  a 
result  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy,  as  it  is 
admitted  to  be  by  the  philosopher,  it  is  in  the 
lanofuaffe  of  the  Christian  the  work  of  God.  In 
usino;  the  word  "  natural,"  we  mean  no  more  than  that 
the  event,  instead  of  being,  as  heretofore,  an  isolated 
phenomenon,  a  consequent  without  an  antecedent, 
now  falls  into  its  place  in  a  sequence  of  phenomena. 
But  even  then  the  discovery  does  not  take  us  far.  We 
have  been  able  to  make  an  additional  step  in  corre- 
lation and  classification ;  we  are  no  nearer  to  a  real 
discovery  of  cause. 

Some,  however,  may  say  that  the  Christian  cannot 
shelter  himself  under  a  general  statement  of  this 
kind — that,  by  adopting  the  name  and  accepting  the 
consequences  which  it  entails,  namely,  a  belief  in 
certain  alleged  historical  events,  he  commits  himself 
to  the  truth  of  a  story  which  contains  a  miraculous 
element,  and  so  puts  himself  outside  the  pale  of 
science.  There  is  a  certain  amount  of  truth  in  the 
objection.    I  am  prepared  to  admit  that  if  Christ  were 


34 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 


nothing  more  than  an  ordinary  man,  if  it  were  only 
true  that  He  died  upon  the  cross,  if  He  did  not  rise 
from  the  dead,  then  there  would  be  no  essential  differ- 
ence between  our  creed  and  other  ethical  systems.  In 
the  life  of  Christ,  I  admit,  there  were  incidents  which 
find  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  ordinary  men,  pheno- 
mena contrary  to  common  experience,  inexplicable  by 
known  causes — incidents,  in  short,  which  we  term 
miraculous. 

This  position  appears  to  many  to   be  wholly  un- 
scientific.    Let  us  endeavour  to  ascertain,  so  far  as 
time  permits,  how  far  their  opinion  can  be  justified. 
Laws    and    miracle    are    commonly   assumed   to   be 
contradictory  terms.     This  assumption  is  often  made 
by  both  parties  in  the  controversy^     But  the  difficulty 
thereby    created   is    gratuitous;    it    arises   from    an 
anthropomorphic  conception  of  the  Divine  Being  and 
the  inevitable  imperfections  of  human  language.     In 
referring   to    Him,   we   permit,   unwisely   often,    the 
use    of    such    terms    as    "interference,"  "change    of 
purpose,'"'  and  the  like,  we  allow  ourselves  to  think 
of  Him^how  inadequately  ! — as  of  a  kind  of   head 
ent^ineer    of    this   world's    machinery,  changing   and 
altering,  mending  and  improving,  moving    this    and 
stopping  that,  so  as  to  hinder  one  result  and  bring 
about  another.     God  is  not  a  man,  and  every  anthro- 


OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY, 


35 


pomorphic  conception,  inevitable  though  it  may  be 
as  a  symbol  of  thought,  is  a  misleading  conception. 
Law,  of  which  we  sometimes  talk  as  though  it  were 
antagonistic  to  God — law,  I  say,  is  but  man's  induction 
from  watching  the  sequence  of  the  phenomena  of  the 
Divine  Power,  the  modes  of  manifestation  of  the 
Unknown  and  Infinite  Energy.  The  laws  of  nature 
Avere  not  fixed  by  some  necessity,  and  imposed  upon 
the  demiurge  of  the  universe  to  be  now  and  then 
eluded,  or  even,  under  specially  favourable  circum- 
stances, overruled  by  him  ;  they  are  nothing  more  than 
our  statement  of  a  chain  of  sequences.  Cause  and  effect 
must  always  stand  in  a  fixed  relation — to  say  this  is 
a  mere  truism — but  it  is  an  unwarrantable  assumption 
to  assert  that  our  view  of  any  sequence  is  always  the 
correct  one.  Regarded  in  its  relation  to  the  physical 
order,  miracle  is  only  a  relative  term.  In  one  sense 
nothing  is  miraculous,  for  everything  is  an  outcome 
of  the  same  Energy,  of  which  law  is  the  expression, 
not  the  restraint ;  in  another  sense  everything  is 
miraculous,  because  we  can  never  arrive  at  the 
Principle  of  Causation. 

Physical  miracles  are  not  rare — phenomena  which 
no  doubt  have  a  cause,  but  it  is  one  which  we  have 
hitherto  failed  to  discover.  For  instance,  if  there  be 
one  thing  which  on  a  priori  grounds  we  might  have 


36  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

reasonably  expected,  it  is  that  any  chemical  element 
should  be  constant  in  its  physical  characters.  Yet 
carbon,  which  is  one  of  the  commonest  constituents 
in  the  substances  known  to  us,  assumes  at  least  three 
distinct  forms,  each  characterized  by  markedly  different 
physical  properties.  It  is  now  opaque  and  soft,  now 
pellucid  and  the  hardest  of  minerals;  sometimes  it 
exhibits  the  opacity  and  almost  retains  the  softness  of 
the  one,  while  it  assumes  the  distinct  and  separate 
crystal  form  of  the  other. 

Take  another  case,  where  the  result  is  produced 
by  a  cause  apparently  inadequate.  Drop  into  a 
crucible  of  molten  gold  a  pellet  of  lead,  only  one- 
thousandth  part  by  weight,  and  the  metal  when  cooled 
loses  its  usual  properties  and  becomes  brittle.  Into 
a  crucible  of  melting  iron  drop  the  same  proportion  of 
aluminium,  and  "  the  pasty  mass  will  become  as  fluid 
as  water."  ^  These  results  are  miraculous  to  me,  for 
I  can  find  no  real  explanation  of  them.^     For  this  I 

^  W,  Anderson,  Presidential  address  to  Section  G.,  British  Associa- 
tion, 1889.  See  also  the  important  researches  of  Professor  Roberts- 
Austen  and  others  referred  to  by  Sir  F.  Abel  in  his  Presidential  address 
to  the  same  body  at  Leeds,  1890. 

2  I  am,  of  course,  aware  that  the  researches  of  Professor  Eoberts- 
Austen  and  others  tend  to  establish  a  connection  between  these  results 
and  the  atomic  volumes  of  the  elements,  in  accordance  with  MeudeljeflTs 
law,  but  I  cannot  say  that,  to  my  mind,  important  and  interesting  as 
this  induction  is,  it  amounts  to  an  explanation. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  37 

must  assume  properties  in  the  constituent  molecules 
or  ultimate  atoms  which  I  cannot  comprehend.  But 
it  will  be  said  these  are  not  miraculous,  because  they 
can  be  repeated  as  often  as  we  please.  Quite  true  : 
they  are  not  so  in  our  rough  and  ready  classification ; 
they  cease  to  be  miracles  when  we  know  how  to  do 
them — that  is  to  say,  the  test  of  the  miraculous  is  in 
the  intellectual  standpoint  of  the  particular  age.  Its 
sphere  contracts,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  recedes, 
with  the  advance  of  education. 

This  argument,  however,  need  not  be  carried  further, 
for  some  of  our  critics  frankly  admit  that  "  physical 
science  has  had  nothing  directly  to  do  with  the  criti- 
cism of  the  gospels  ;  it  is  wholly  incompetent  to  furnish 
demonstrative  evidence  that  any  statement  made  in 
these  histories  is  untrue.  Indeed,  modern  physiology 
can  find  parallels  in  nature  for  events  of  apparently 
the  most  supernatural  kind  recounted  in  some  of 
those  histories."  ^ 

Our  difficulties,  then,  by  this  last  concession,  are 
narrowed  down  to  these  :  (1)  the  validity  of  the  historic 
evidence,  and  (2)  an  a  'pviori  suspicion  caused  by  the 
connection  of  the  miracles  with  a  reputed  revelation. 
As  I  have  already  said,^  the  former  of  these  difliculties 

^  Professor  Huxley,  Nineteenth  Century,  xxv.,  p.  189. 
2  Second  Lecture,  page  20. 


38  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

has  been  so  fully  discussed  of  late  years  that  it  need 
not  detain  us.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  investiga- 
tions of  the  most  competent  scholars  have  led  to  this 
result,  that  the  story  of  the  Christ  whom  Paul  preached 
corresponded  in  its  main  outlines  with  that  which  we 
have  received.  Thus,  if  the  belief  in  the  divinity  and 
resurrection  of  Christ  were  an  illusion,  it  arose  in  the 
earliest  days  of  the  evolution  of  the  creed,  at  which 
time,  we  may  remark,  the  indirect  historic  evidence 
does  not  indicate  the  existence  of  an  environment  very 
favourable  to  its  development. 

We  pass  on,  then,  to  the  second  difficulty :  "  The 
connection  of  occurrences  called  miraculous  with  an 
alleged  revelation  of  itself  awakens  our  suspicions." 
Undoubtedly  we  do  well  to  scrutinize  carefully  the 
evidence  in  all  such  cases.  A  sce})tical  attitude  is 
justifiable  because  testimony  is  undeniably  fallible; 
the  more  picturesque  aspect  of  a  story  is  always 
developed  in  the  telling,  and  men  as  a  rule  not  only 
are  credulous,  but  also  have  a  love  of  the  marvellous. 
But  to  refuse  belief  on  no  other  grounds  is  as  un- 
scientific as  to  believe  simply  because  the  statement 
is  incredible.  Suppose  we  say  that  we  reject  the 
story  of  Christ's  resurrection  because  men  are  prone 
to  exaggerate.  If  we  resist  too  stoutly  on  this  ground, 
there  are  passages  in  the  history  of  science  which  will 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  39, 

not  stand  a  very  close  scrutiny,  and  her  credit  may  be 
found  to  have  suffered  from  having  kept  company 
with  astrologers,  alchemists,  and  quacks  of  various 
kinds.  Suppose  we  reject  the  story  because  there 
are  discrepancies  in  the  minor  historic  details.  If 
we  are  going  to  act  on  this  principle  in  ordinary 
history,  not  very  much  will  survive  the  trial.  On 
such  grounds  we  should  have  serious  doubts  as  to  the 
most  remarkable  events  with  which  this  building  is 
connected.  The  details  of  the  death-scene  of  Charles  I. 
are  even  now  a  subject  of  dispute ;  ^  the  accounts  of 
his  funeral  vary  so  strangely  that  the  burial-place, 
until  the  discovery  of  his  body  early  in  the  present 
century,  was  at  least  doubtful;^  but  this  does  not  shake 
our  belief  in  the  main  facts. 

But  some  say  we  must  disbelieve  the  Christian 
story,  because  alleged  miracles  are  so  common  in 
ecclesiastical  history.  That  is  to  say,  we  must  either 
reject  all  or  accept  all.  I  might  to  this  make  the  old 
retort  that  the  existence  of  a  forgery  assumes  that  of 
a  genuine  original,  but  without  pressing  this  argument, 

^  Referring  to  a  controversy  then  being  carried  on  in  the  Times 
newspaper,  as  to  whether  the  block  on  which  the  king  laid  his  head 
were  only  a  few  inches  in  height,  or  like  that  which  was  used  at  the 
execution  of  the  Jacobite  noblemen  on  Tower  Hill. 

2  The  discrepancies  of  competent  historians  make  this  an  excellent 
subject  for  "Historic  Doubts "  (see  Ealford,  Essaijs,  p.  157). 


40  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

which  I  think  has  a  certain  weight,  I  decline  to  accept 
the  alternative.  In  science  I  am  frequently  called 
upon  to  receive,  on  the  authority  of  others,  statements 
which  appear  to  me  very  like  assertions  of  the 
occurrence  of  miracles;  that  is,  they  affirm  as  facts 
things  which  are  not  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
nature,,  so  far  as  I  know  them.  If  I  refuse  credence 
to  some  one  of  these  statements,  because  in  this 
particular  case  my  special  knowledge  indicates  to  me 
that  it  is  more  probable  testimony  should  be  false 
than  that  the  miracle  should  be  true,  I  am  not  thereby 
precluded  from  accepting  some  other  statement — 
though  to  me  it  is  equally  surprising — which  seems 
to  be  better  substantiated,  and  more  in  harmony 
with  analogies  already  established. 

In  dealing  with  an  alleojed  miracle  we  must  not,  as 
I  have  said,  regard  the  event  alone,  but  also  take  into 
consideration  the  ethical  or  theological  system  with 
which  it  is  connected.  Is  there  no  such  connection,  so 
that  the  event  is  a  mere  thaumaturgic  display,  then 
we  may  reasonably  doubt  whether  it  is  in  accordance 
with  the  mode  in  which  God  appears  to  work.  Is  the 
system  repugnant  to  our  moral  sense,  then  we  are 
justified  in  withholding  belief.  Does  the  system  regard 
truth  as  all-important,  then  fraud  is  improbable.  Is  it 
sober  and  restrained  in  statement,  then  illusion  is  un- 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  41 

likely.  Is  the  event  itself  fraught  with  meaning,  essen- 
tially didactic,  then  it  is  the  more  likely  to  have  hap- 
pened, unless  revelation  be  a  process  in  itself  incredible. 
If,  however,  it  be  the  Will  of  God  to  reveal  Himself 
to  man — that  is,  to  disclose  to  him  something  more  of 
the  ultimate  realities  than  he  is  able  to  learn  from  his 
environment,  which  can  only  lead  him  to  an  apprehen- 
sion of  the  conditioned;  to  teach,  as  does  a  wise 
preceptor,  sometimes  by  word  of  mouth  instead  of 
leaving  the  pupil  wholly  to  lesson-books; — then  it 
seems  to  me  that,  as  the  former  is  a  process  different 
from  the  latter,  the  ordinary  routine  must  be  varied. 
Revelation  without  miracle — using  the  common  phrase 
— as  it  seems  to  me,  is  no  revelation  at  all.  The  word 
"  revelation  "  presupposes  that  an  unusual  and  unpre- 
cedented force  comes  into  play  in  the  world's  order ; 
what  marvel  that  novel  results  should  follow  in  that 
part  which  is  visible  to  and  appreciable  by  our 
ordinary  senses  ?  The  electric  current  by  which  we 
communicate  our  thoughts  to  distant  places  produces, 
as  it'  works,  physical  effects  which,  to  him  who  is 
ignorant,  are  violations  and  suspensions  of  the  laws  of 
nature.  Twice  in  the  world's  history,  as  it  has  often 
been  pointed  out,  events  have  happened  which  are 
miraculous  to  us.  These  are  the  beginning  of  the 
univei*se,  the  creation,  as  it  is  called,  of  matter ;  and  the 


4^  THE   PRESENT  CONFLICT 

beginning  of  life,  which,  in  whatever  relation  it  may 
stand  to  the  physical  forces,  cannot  be  explained  as  a 
mere  combination  of  them. 

Again,  if  once  we  admit  the  possibility  of  a  reve- 
lation, that  is,  of  the  disclosure  of  truths  not  attain- 
able by  our  senses,  which  can  only  deal  with  natural 
objects,  are  we  unreasonable  in  demanding  some  sign, 
some  authentication  of  the  message;  in  expecting  some 
visible  indication  of  the  invisible  energy,  just  as  the 
light  which  glows  in  the  carbon  loop  of  the  electric 
lamp  denotes  that  the  invisible  current  from  the  un- 
seen battery  is  passing  through  it  ?  We  cannot  accept 
the  terms  of  the  message,  taken  by  itself,  as  a  suffi- 
cient proof  of  its  authority.  It  may  be  attractive, 
specious,  but  after  all  an  ignis  fatuus  to  lead  me 
astray  into  the  sloughs  of  delusion  and  error.  Ex- 
perience shows  that  the  way  of  truth  is  not  always 
the  most  attractive.  I  need,  therefore,  some  credentials 
of  an(jther  kind,  unless  I  am  to  remain  for  long  in  a 
condition  of  great  hesitancy  and  sore  perplexity. 

These  credentials,  it  seems  to  me,  we  have  in  Chris- 
tianity, when  stripped  of  the  parasitic  growth  of 
ecclesiasticism,  when  reduced  to  the  simple  story  and 
simple  theology  of  its  earliest  age  as  indicated  in  the 
pages  of  the  New  Testament.  This  discloses  to  us  an 
epoch  in  the  world's  history  when  a  force,  which  we 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  43 

can  only  view  as  creative,  for  a  brief  period  operated 
with  exceptional  activity.  Granted  that  each  new 
individual  endowed  with  consciousness  of  personality 
is  in  some  sense  a  creation,  there  was  here  a  new 
birth  of  deeper  significance,  of  more  permanent  result. 
Granted  that  each  forerunner  in  whom  the  Divine 
Energy  was  specially  manifested  was  in  some  sense 
an  incarnation,  here  was  one  in  the  highest  and 
completest.  The  birth  of  Christ  and  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  figured  and  fulfilled  the  ultimate  destiny 
of  man,  gave  the  long-sought  answer  to  the  dark 
enigma  of  his  life,  and  replaced  uncertainty  by  hope. 
They  enforced  the  lesson  of  self-sacrifice,  and  at  the 
same  time  demonstrated  that  the  imitation  of  Christ 
was  not  a  futile  effort ;  that  the  way  of  the  Cross,  hard 
and  thorny  though  it  is,  undoubtedly  leads  at  last  to 
a  better  land  and  unclouded  happiness.  "I  am  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life,"  said  One  in  Palestine 
more  than  eighteen  centuries  since.  If  He  were  only 
a  dreamer  or  a  dream;  if  the  central  article  of  the 
Christian  creed  have  no  other  authority  than  that 
which  can  be  obtained  from  the  inductive  treatment 
of  the  objects  of  sense; — then  I  tell  you  frankly  that 
your  hope  of  a  future  life  is  indeed  a  pleasant  and  a 
poetic  fancy,  but  it  will  vanish  before  the  cold  logic 
of  physical  facts  as  the  glow  of  the  evening  sky  fades 
before  the  darkness  of  the  coming  night. 


THE   PRESENT   CONFLICT   OF   SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY  (Boyle  Lectures,  No.  IV.).^ 

"I  came  forth  from  the  Father,  and   am  come  into  the 
world:    again   I   leave   the  world,  and  go    to   the  Father." 

St.  John  xvi.  28. 

Attempts  have  been  made,  more  especially  of  late 
years,  to  prove  that  the  section  of  St.  John's  Gospel 
from  which  these  words  are  quoted  is  not  a  record 
of  the  actual  teaching  of  Jesus,  but  a  series  of  imagi- 
nary discourses,  ascribed  to  Him  by  a  theologian  of  a 
later  age.  Controversy,  as  it  appears  to  me,  has  estab- 
lished at  least  these  results — that  the  book  was  already 
in  existence  very  early  in  the  second  century ;  that  its 
theology  is  in  accord  with  that  of  the  Apostolic  age, 
though  certain  points  have  been  treated  with  unusual 
fulness ;  that  if  we  regard  its  statements,  not  as  the 
words  of  Jesus,  but  only  as  the  metaphysical  specula- 
tions of  some  one  of  His  disciples,  no  trace  can  be 

1  Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall,  on  the  First  Sunday 
after  Trinity,  1890. 

44 


C0NFLIC7    OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  45 

found,  within  the  century  which  followed  His  death, 
of  the  existence  of  any  one  who  was  a  thinker  at  once 
so  profound  and  so  audacious ;  for  surely  at  that 
time  it  would  have  been  deemed  audacity — nay,  pro- 
fanity— to  fabricate  such  discourses  and  make  such 
claims  as  they  involve.  Christian  literature,  if  we 
speak  as  ordinary  critics,  begins  at  an  early  period 
to  exhibit  a  marked  decadence,  as  any  one  may  see 
who  will  take  the  trouble  to  compare  the  best  speci- 
mens of  the  post- Apostolic  age  with  the  Scriptures  of 
the  New  Testament. 

It  is,  then,  my  present  purpose  to  carry  somewhat 
further  the  line  of  argument  which  I  adopted  on  the 
last  occasion,  by  pointing  out  that,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
we  find,  in  the  history  of  Christianity  and  its  fore- 
runner Judaism,  indications  of  a  revelation.  By  this 
I  mean,  as  already  explained,  a  step  in  the  education 
of  man  which  does  not  seem  to  result  from  the  ordi- 
nary processes  of  evolution — which,  wh^n  regarded 
from  our  point  of  view,  appears  as  a  discontinuity, 
and  thus  an  exception  to  the  general  law  of  continuous 
operation. 

I  will  only  remind  you — for  it  is  often  forgotten 
alike  by  friends  and  by  foes — that  in  making  the 
following  admissions,  in  conceding  very  much,  as  some 
would  say,  to  the  latter,  I  am  very  far  from  granting 


46  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

the  conclusions  which,  in  their  opinion,  are  necessary 
consequences. 

1.  Continuity  of  sequence,  evolution,  development 
through  processes  which  we  call  natural  (this  being 
only  our  way  of  saying  that  they  are  familiar),  ap- 
pears to  me  the  rule  in  this  world ;  the  law  of  nature 
as  it  is  commonly  called.  This,  however,  does  not  to 
my  mind  make  it  the  less  the  work  of  God.  Our 
most  rigid  scientific  thinkers  enjoin  me  to  recognize 
in  it  the  operation  of  an  Infinite  Energy.  So  far,  then, 
we  are  perfectly  in  accord,  only  I  go  further  than 
they,  and  as  I  ascribe  to  this  certain  characteristics 
(speaking  as  a  man),  I  prefer  to  call  it  God. 

2.  I  admit  that  continuity  is  also  the  general  rule 
in  what  we  may  call  the  religious  education  of  the 
world.  But  I  must  add  that  here  also,  as  in  nature, 
the  observation  of  a  series  of  sequences  is  not  equiva- 
lent to  a  discovery  of  cause.  We  must  not  forget  the 
old  difference  between  How  and  'Why} 

3.  I  admit  that  a  relative  element  is  present  in 
all  revelation,  because,  humanly  speaking,  I  do  not 
see  how  absolute  truth  could  in  any  case  be  imparted 
to  a  beino'  conditioned  as  man,  or  how  even  relative 

*  Madam  How  and  Lady  Why,  by  my  late  friend  Charles  Kingsley, 
is  a  book  for  children,  but  is  full  of  lessons  for  older  folk,  as  is  the  case 
with  other  like  works  from  the  same  pen. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY.  47 

truth  could  germinate  and  fructify  if  the  seed  were 
dropped  on  a  soil  wholly  unsuitable.  If  I  may  say 
it  without  profanity,  there  is  not  for  God  one  law  in 
nature  and  another  in  revelation.  When  He  would 
telegraph  to  man,  the  message  is  transmitted  along 
the  best  conductor  that  may  be  found,  though  a  new 
substance  is  not  created  for  the  occasion. 

I  make  all  these  admissions,  and  yet  feel  justified  in 
declining  to  accept  the  conclusions  to  which  they  are 
thought  to  lead,  or  the  alternatives  to  which  I  am 
supposed  to  be  forced.  These,  perhaps,  I  should  briefly 
notice  in  passing.  One  of  them  amounts  to  this :  I 
must  conclude  that  the  Unlimited  Cause  "took  the 
disguise  of  a  man  for  the  purpose  o£  covenanting  with 
a  shepherd  chief  in  Syria."  ^  I  do  not,  indeed,  admit 
that  this  sentence  accurately  expresses  the  fact ;  but, 
letting  that  pass,  I  feel  entitled  to  compliment  the 
critic  on  his  capacity  for  prescribing  to  the  Infinite 
His  modes  of  operation.  The  saying  is  thoroughly 
man-like.  It  is  the  outcome  of  a  spirit  like  that 
which  makes  small  people  arrogant  with  those  whom 
they  consider  to  be  socially  their  inferiors,  and  leads 
men  to  regard  with  contempt  all  else  that  lives  on 
this  our  globe.  "  What  God  hath  cleansed,  that  call 
not  thou  common,"  we  might  justly  retort. 

*  Herbert  Spencer,  Ecdesiasiical  Institutions,  §  588. 


48  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

Another  conclusion  to  which  I  am  supposed  to  be 
forced,  is  this  :  That  the  Infinite  Energy,  when  re- 
vealed under  the  human  form,  ascribed  to  Himself 
limited  knowledge,  and  exhibited  a  defective  moral 
sense.  As  already  said,  I  do  not  expect  that  the 
personality — or  supposed  personality  of  the  mes- 
senger— would  be  lost  by  absorption ;  nor  can  I  be- 
lieve that  the  message  would  have  been  of  much  use 
if  it  had  been  made  to  conform  to  the  intellectual 
requirements  and  moral  status  (which  may  be  a 
fallible  standard)  of  the  nineteenth  century  after 
Christ. 

The  third  conclusion  is  this :  That  if  the  Christian 
religion  is  not  of  like  origin  and  development  with 
others,  it  must  follow  that  "  a  complete  simulation  of 
the  natural  by  the  supernatural  has  been  deliberately 
devised  to  deceive  those  who  examine  critically  what 
they  are  taught ;  appearances  have  been  arranged  for 
the  purpose  of  misleading  sincere  inquirers,  that  they 
may  be  eternally  damned  for  seeking  the  truth."  ^  I 
am  aware  that  the  words  of  many  Christians  and  of 
certain  Churches  give  some  colour  to  the  assumption 
which  this  statement  involves ;  but,  as  I  find  no  valid 
foundation  for  it  in  the  authorized  formulas  of  my 
own  Church,  and  still  less  in  its  charter,  the  sayings  of 
*  Idem,  §  588,  conclusion. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  49 

Christ  and  His  Apostles,  the  noose,  into  which  I  am 
supposed  to  be  inveigled,  appears  to  me  no  better 
than  a  phantom. 

We  have,  then,  to  inquire  whether,  admitting  the 
existence  in  both  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian 
religion,  of  a  process  of  development  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  continuity  and  the  methods  of  evolu- 
tion, we  can  discover  in  their  histories  indications  of 
discontinuities  which  justify  us  in  recognizing  them 
as  revelations. 

The  most  elementary  condition  of  the  religious  idea 
appears  to  be  some  form  of  animism,  exhibited  in 
shamanism  or  in  fetish-worship.  By  extension  from 
this — possibly  through  the  idea  of  the  existence  of 
ghosts  or  through  some  form  of  ancestor-worship — 
we  arrive  at  polytheism,  and  from  this  two  lines  of 
development  seem  possible,  either  to  an  esoteric 
pantheism  or  to  henotheism  ;  the  latter  being  the 
acknowledgment  of  one  divinity,  whose  status  is 
essentially  higher  than  that  of  all  the  rest — the 
monarchical  idea,  as  we  may  call  it,  in  theology. 

But  this  is  distinct  from  monotheism,  for  that 
repudiates  the  existence  of  any  other  gods,  however 
subordinate  in  rank.)  Monotheism,  indeed,  has  a  closer 
affinity  with  pantheism,  though  from  this  it  differs 
essentially  in  distinguishing  cause  from  effect,  and  in 
E 


50  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

ascribing  to  the  First  Cause  certain  qualities  which, 
for  want  of  a  better  term,  we  designate  personal. 

Now,  what  phenomena  are  presented  to  us  by  the 
more  ancient  Hebrew  writings  ?  For  this  inquiry, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  enter  upon  questions  as  to  the 
possible  composite  origin  or  later  recensions  of  the 
older  books  of  the  Bible.  It  is,  I  believe,  generally 
admitted  that  the  portions  to  which  I  shall  refer  are 
of  great  antiquity.  The  first  of  these  narrates  the 
early  history  of  the  earth  and  of  the  human  race. 
In  very  ancient  Chaldean  records  we  find  accounts 
so  similar  that  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  they  are 
derived  from  the  same  original.^  But  between  the 
two  versions  there  is  one  remarkable  difference.  The 
Chaldean  legends,  as  it  has  been  happily  expressed, 
"  are  saturated  with  polytheism."  ^  From  the  Hebrew 
this  element  has  been  so  thoroughly  expurgated  that 
it  can  only  be  traced — if,  indeed,  the  recognition  be 
more  than  fianciful — in  the  plural  word  which  in 
certain  cases  designates  God.^  By  whom  was  this 
change  made  ?     There  are  but  two  persons  to  whom 

^  For  a  convenient  account  of  these,  we  may  refer  to  the  volume 
on  the  history  of  Chaldea,  by  A.  Eagozin,  in  The  Story  of  the 
Nations. 

2  I  heard  the  phrase  used  a  short  time  since  in  an  address  by  the 
present  Bishop  of  Manchester. 

^  Elohim. 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  51 

we  can  reasonably  attribute  it ;  these  are  Moses  and 
Abraham.     But  the  relationships  of  the  former  were 
with  Egypt,  not  with  Chaldea;  so  that,  apart  from 
other    considerations,    we    conclude    that    Abraham 
formed    the    link   between   Chaldean    and   Hebrew 
tradition;    that   he   expurgated   the  familiar  stories, 
and  illuminated  them  with  a  new  light.     But  what 
enabled  him  to  make  this  mighty  advance  in  theo- 
logy, the  greatest  stride  of  which  we  can  find   any 
trace   in   the  ancient  world  ?     He    was    surrounded, 
admittedly,  by  opposite  influences.     We  are  distinctly 
told — and  there  is  no  ground  for  doubting  the  state- 
ment— that  he  was  the  companion  and  the  descendant 
of  polytheists.i     So  far  as  I  know,  not  a  particle  of 
evidence  exists  that  the  human  race  had  advanced  at 
that  time  even  so  far  as  henotheism,  and  from  this 
to  monotheism  is  a  long  step.     Hence,  in  accordance 
with  the  ordinary  laws  of  evolution,  the  appearance 
of  a  monotheist  at  that  epoch  of  the  world's  history 
is  an  event  as  improbable  as   the  discovery  of  the 
remains  of  man  in  a  deposit  of  Miocene  age  would 
be  in  geology.     As  an  evolutionist,  I  am   unable  to 
credit,   without   the   strongest  evidence,   the  alleged 
occurrence  of  either  the  one  or  the  other. 

Further,  as  monotheists,  the  patriarchs  were  so  far 
'  Josh.  xxiv.  2. 


52 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 


in  advance  of  their  age  that  the  idea  fell  on  an  almost 
fruitless  soil.     Their  descendants  relapsed  into  heno- 
theism  at  best,  into  polytheism  at  worst.     The  faith 
of  Abraham  must  have  become  almost  extinct  during 
the  period  of  bondage  in  Egypt.      Then  arose  Moses. 
Brought  up  at  the  court  of  Egypt,  he  was  learned 
in  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians.     After  a  long  exile 
in  the  desert,  cut  off  from  communication  with  philo- 
sophers or  students,   associated   with   nomad   tribes, 
among  whom  we  can  hardly  deem  it  possible  that  a 
pure  monotheism  could  have  survived — if,  indeed,  it 
had  ever  obtained  a  footing — he  makes  his  mark  as 
a  religious  reformer  not  less  than  as  a  political  leader. 
Can  we  regard  him,  in    the  former   character,  as   a 
result  of  evolutionary  processes  ?      Was  the  idea  of 
which  he  was  the  apostle — to  use  a  modern  phrase — 
already  in  the  air  ?    Certainly  it  was  not  so  in  Egypt ; 
there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that  it  was  so  in 
Chaldea.      Granted  that,  in  another  such  phrase,  he 
had  been  already  anticipated  by  Abraham  and  the 
fathers  of  Israel,  had  not  their  doctrine  been  almost 
overpowered   in   the   struggle    for   existence   by   the 
■conceptions   then    dominant   in  the   national   mind  ? 
Moses,  too,  was  a  man  in  advance  of  his  age — "  born 
out  of  due  time."     For  the  sake  of  argument,  let  us 
admit   the   presence  of   a  legendary  element  in  the 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  53 

history  of  the  settlement  of  the  Hebrew  race  in 
Palestine ;  let  us  concede  that,  in  its  present  form,  it 
may  be  somewhat  later  than  the  age  of  Moses ;  then, 
I  ask,  what  do  I  learn,  by  inductive  treatment  even 
of  these  materials,  as  to  the  state  of  thought  among 
the  Hebrews  up  to — let  us  say — the  days  of  David  ? 
It  is  this  :  that  monotheism  at  that  period  practically 
had  no  firm  hold  upon  the  nation.  The  Hebrews  at 
heart  were  polytheists,  only  better  than  the  neigh- 
bouring tribes  in  that  a  vague  recollection  of  primeval 
tradition  at  times  resulted  in  a  kind  of  monotheism. 

The  position  occupied  by  the  Hebrew  prophets 
seems  to  me  to  have  an  important  significance  in  this 
connection.  They  are  not  depicted  as  philosophers, 
persuading  their  countrymen  to  monotheism  by  argu- 
ments. They  are  not  men  of  culture,  representatives 
of  the  esoteric  thought  of  a  priestly  caste ;  but  they 
come,  whence  one  hardly  knows,  as  critics,  and  often 
as  opponents,  of  the  very  men  by  whom  we  should 
have  expected  them  to  have  been  educated  and 
produced.  They  proclaim  monotheism  as  a  message ; 
they  teach  it  as  a  system.  They  are  like  missionaries 
of  an  organization,  of  which,  however,  there  is  no 
trace  ;  men  with  a  commission,  but  by  whom  granted 
we  cannot  discover.  They  have  generally  small  in- 
fluence, are   often   persecuted;   their  doctrine  makes 


54  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

little  way  until  Samaria  falls  before  the  Assyrian, 
and  Jerusalem  before  the  Chaldean.  But  if  Jewish 
monotheism  were  the  result  simply  of  an  evolutionary 
process,  it  ought  not  to  have  waged  this  unequal 
struggle  for  existence.  It  should  have  been  supported 
throughout,  not  by  the  almost  spasmodic  efforts  of 
rare  individual  champions,  but  by  the  gradually  in- 
creasing strength  of  public  opinion.  Its  battle,  like 
a  Homeric  victory,  has  been  won  by  the  prowess  of 
a  hero ;  Nature's  battles  are  democratic,  won  by  the 
rank-and-file.  Not  one  of  the  men  who  gave  the 
great  impulses  to  Jewish  thought  can  be  called  a 
normal  product  of  his  age,  if  we  depend  solely  upon 
evolutionary  processes.  These  might  have  produced 
a  Joshua,  not  a  Moses ;  a  Solomon,  not  a  David ;  a 
Hezekiah,  not  an  Isaiah. 

But  it  might  be  argued,  of  these  early  days  our 
records  are  few,  our  conceptions  necessarily  vague. 
Let  us  turn,  then,  to  an  epoch  of  which  we  have  a 
fuller  knowledge — the  beginning  of  Christianity. 
Efforts  have  been  made  to  represent  the  history  of 
the  life  of  Jesus  as  little  better  than  a  cloud  of  legend. 
This  attempt  is  necessary  if  we  start  with  a  disbelief, 
on  a  "priori  grounds,  in  every  occurrence  which  we 
call  miraculous.  But  the  method  employed  only 
succeeds   in    dissipating   certain  theories   as   to    the 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  55 

nature  of  revelation,  which  prove,  on  examination,  to 
have  no  valid  basis,  or  in  compelling  us,  if  we  are 
consistent,  to  take  up  a  position  of  universal  scep- 
ticism as  regards  history. 

Putting  aside  for  a  moment  the  alleged  miracles, 
how  are  we  to  explain  the  genesis  of  the  doctrine 
taught  by  Christ  ?  That  ther«  was  a  preparation  for 
it,  that — to  use  modern  phrases — in  this  or  that  He 
had  been  anticipated,  that  some  ideas  were  already  in 
the  air,  I  am  not  concerned  to  deny ;  for,  as  I  have 
said,  I  believe,  as  a  consistent  theist,  all  development 
to  be  by  the  power  of  God,  and  evolution  His  ordinary 
mode  of  working.  But  I  cannot  thus  explain  the 
phenomena.  What  are  the  facts  ?  Jesus  was  the 
reputed  son  of  a  carpenter  in  humble  circumstances. 
He  had  received  but  little  education.  He  owed 
nothing  to  the  philosophers  of  Greece  or  Rome.  He 
was  distinctly  hostile,  not  only  to  the  modes  of 
thought  and  of  instruction  which  were  then  dominant 
in  Judaism,  but  also  to  its  general  tendency  for  at  least 
two  centuries  previously.  There  is  no  evidence  that  He 
was  influenced  by  the  teaching  of  Philo.  This,  indeed, 
on  chronological  grounds  alone,  is  highly  improbable. 
Neither  can  we  make  that  assertion  of  His  disciples, 
because  between  their  doctrine  and  this  peculiar  com- 
bination of  Hellenistic  and  rabbinic  schools  of  thouoht 


56  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

tliere  is  ;at  most  only  an  occasional  correspondence  in 
terminology,  while  there  is  an  essential  difference  in 
fundamental  conceptions.^ 

Jesus  also  took  up  a  position  very  different  from 
that  of  the  ordinary  reformer.  It  has  little  in  common 
with  that  of  such  men  as  Wycliffe  or  Luther.  They 
confuted  the  errors  of  the  present  by  an  appeal  to  the 
past ;  Christ,  by  the  enunciation  of  a  new  principle 
of  action,  though  He  pointed  out  that  the  Law  was 
being  obeyed  in  the  letter,  but  broken  in  its  spirit. 
They,  in  short,  looked  backward ;  He,  forward. 

What  influences  were  in  His  favour  ?  So  long  as 
His  teaching  seemed  to  foster  the  national  sentiment, 
it  Avas  popular  with  the  people,  who  chafed  under  the 
Roman  yoke.  But  when  it  became  clear  that  His  aim 
was  not  political,  the  multitude  left  Him  to  the 
ecclesiastics,  who  naturally  had  been  His  enemies  from 
the  first.  He  was  crucified — He  died  the  death  of  a 
detected  impostor.  His  followers  admit  that  they 
deserted  Him.  They  despaired.  Yet,  in  a  short  time, 
these  timid  fugitives  become  the  brave  heralds  of  a 
message  for  the  terms  of  which  we  look  in  vain  into 
the  speculations  of  the  rabbi  or  of  the  philosopher. 

The  whole  history  of  Christianity  is  not  that  of 

>  See   Edersheim,  Lije  and   Times   of  Jesus   the   Messiah,  bk.  i., 
especially  chap.  iv. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY,  57 

natural  growth  alone.  Its  origin  is  inexplicable  as 
an  evolutionary  process.  It  stands  to  earlier  creeds, 
even  Judaism  itself,  in  a  relation  resembling  that  of 
life  to  the  physical  forces  in  this  world's  order.  It  co- 
operates with,  in  a  sense  it  absorbs  them  ;  yet  it  is  not 
identical  with  them.  Between  the  history  of  Christian 
and  scientific  progress  there  is  little  in  common.  In 
the  latter,  though  advance  may  be  slow,  backsliding 
is  rare.  Error,  once  pierced  by  the  spear  of  truth,  is 
abandoned  to  the  fostering  care  of  the  crotchet-monger 
and  the  puzzle-head.  But  Christianity,  like  Judaism 
formerly,  has  to  wage  a  struggle  for  existence.  It 
seems  hardly  possible  to  keep  it  in  its  original  purity. 
Dare  we  say  that,  even  in  this  nineteenth  century,  no 
trace  of  fetish -worship  lingers,  no  taint  of  polytheism 
still  infects  ?  Might  not  Christian  Churches  even  now 
move  St.  Paul,  could  he  return  to  earth,  to  that  plain- 
ness of  speech  which  he  used  to  his  Galatian  converts  ? 
It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  science  has 
developed  in  accordance  with  the  natural  tendencies 
of  the  human  race,  but  Christianity — in  so  far  as  it 
has  developed — in  opposition  to  them. 

Thus  while  in  all  progress,  in  all  evolution  of 
religious  thought  and  ethical  principles,  I  discern  the 
guidance  of  God;  while  through  all  the  ages  past  I 
recognize  a  light  broadening  and  brightening  towards 


58  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY. 

the  more  perfect  day,  I  find,  both  in  Judaism  and  in 
Christianity,  processes  which  may  rightly  be  termed 
creative,  and  the  very  errors  of  the  disciples  of  the 
one  or  the  other  strengthen  the  claim  of  each  to  an 
origin  not  of  this  world's  order. 

More  than  eighteen  centuries  are  past  and  gone — 
eighteen  centuries,  with  all  their  mistakes  and  all 
their  advances  in  knowledge — yet  the  life  of  Jesus 
has  lost  none  of  its  magnetic  force,  the  words  of  Jesus 
none  of  their  quickening  power.  Strange  illusion 
this,  if  such  it  be,  to  have  so  much  vitality  that  even 
now  each  one  of  us,  as  life's  perplexities  increase, 
as  its  sad  lessons  are  enforced  by  sorrowful  experience, 
as  the  evening  shadows  begin  to  lengthen  and  the 
sands  run  low  in  his  appointed  measure  of  time, 
feels  that  he  can  only  re-echo  the  question  of  Christ's 
first  disciples,  "  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  life." 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY  (Boyle   Lectures,  No.  V.).' 

*'  I  delight  in  the  Law  of  God  after  the  inward  man  :  hut  I 
see  another  law  in  my  members,  warring  against  the  law  of 
my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin 
which  is  in  my  members." — Kom.  vii.  22,  23. 

I  HAVE  endeavoured,  in  previous  lectures,  to  show 
that  there  is  no  necessary  conflict  between  the  con- 
clusions of  science  and  the  belief  in  a  revelation ;  that 
we  must  look  to  the  latter  for  all  knowledge  of  God 
which  is  other  than  relative ;  but  that  we  find  nothing 
in  the  former  to  make  an  expectation  of  His  guidance 
unreasonable ;  that,  in  short,  the  conflict  of  theology 
and  science  arises  from  partial  and  one-sided  views 
on  the  part  of  their  advocates. 

If,  then,  we  are  fully  persuaded  that  the  Author  of 
Nature  and  of  Revelation  is  One  and  the  same,  we  are 
more  than  justified  in  the  hope  that  the  hieroglyphs 
which  we  seek  to  decipher  on  the  pages  of  the  one 

*  Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall,  on  the  Second  Sunday 
after  Trinity,  1890. 

59 


6o  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

volume  may  throw  light  on  the  interpretations  of 
sayings  which,  in  the  other,  are  often  beyond  our 
present  comprehension.  I  purpose,  then,  in  the  remain- 
ing lectures  of  this,  course,  to  inquire  whether  these 
imaginary  adversaries  may  not  be  sometimes  mutually 
helpful,  and  especially  whether  some  explanation  of 
difficulties,  which  undoubtedly  exist  in  theology,  may 
not  be  found  in  science,  that  is,  in  the  inductive  treat- 
ment of  the  phenomena  of  Nature.  To  cover  so  wide 
a  field  is  obviously  impossible,  so  that  I  shall  restrict 
myself  to  certain  instances.  One  of  these,  perhaps  the 
most  saddening,  is  indicated  by  the  words  which  I 
have  read.  They  speak  of  a  conflict  which  all  of  us 
know  too  well.  They  represent  the  individual  man 
as  a  battle-field  of  two  opposing  forces.  The  passage 
from  which  they  come^  as  all  admit,  is  hard  to  inter- 
pret; but  this  is  due  rather  to  the  nature  of  the 
subject  than  to  the  fault  of  the  writer.  Do  the  words, 
let  us  ask,  become  more  easy  to  comprehend  when 
regarded  from  the  standpoint  to  which  we  are  led  by 
scientific  induction  ? 

There  is  a  dark  shadow  in  Christianity,  there  is  a 
grave  difficulty  in  every  ethical  system,  there  is  a 
discord  in  the  harmony  of  Nature,  which  has  per- 
plexed alike  philosopher  and  saint.  This  is  the 
existence  of  evil.     Whence  did  it  arise  ?  how  did  it 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  6i 

come  ?  Can  science  help  us  in  solving  the  problem  ?  ^ 
Two  modes  of  eluding  the  difficulty  should,  perhaps, 
be  mentioned  in  order  to  avoid  misapprehension, 
though  they  need  not  be  discussed,  because  it  is 
generally  admitted  that  neither  can  be  regarded  as 
satisfactory.  These  are  :  To  assert  that  evil  is  only 
good  in  another  form,  which  practically  is  a  denial  of 
its  existence ;  or  that  there  is  an  eternal  principle  of 
evil  antagonistic  to  that  of  good — the  well-known 
dualism  of  some  Eastern  philosophers. 

The  position  adopted  by  most  theists,  and  all  or 
almost  all  Christians,  may  be  concisely — if  rather 
baldly — stated  as  follows  :  "  God  is  perfect  goodness. 
God  is  Creator  and  Author  of  all  things.  Evil  is 
present  among  them,  at  any  rate  in  this  world."  If 
this  be  so,  one  conclusion  onl}^  seems  possible,  from 
which,  however,  we  naturally  shrink.  Even  if  we 
ascribe,  as  is  generally  done,  the  presence  of  evil  in 
this  world  to  the  action  of  a  particular  person,  this 
obviously  affords  no  explanation  of  its  origin  ;  and, 
however  true  the  opinion  may  be,  it  leaves  a  number 
of  difficult  questions  quite  untouched. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  book  of  Nature,  and  see  what  light 

^  The  treatment  of  the  question  is  necessarily  brief.  A  fuller 
discussion  will  be  found  in  a  discourse,  earlier  in  date,  but  printed  at 
the  end  of  the  present  volume. 


62  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

it  can  throw  on  this  dark  place  in  theology.  We  must 
be  careful,  at  the  outset,  to  avoid  a  common  confusion 
of  thought.  This  arises  from  the  double  sense  in  which 
the  word  "  evil  "  is  ordinarily  employed,  and  the  con- 
sequent failure  to  distinguish  between  the  physical 
and  the  moral.  Doubtless  it  is  not  always  easy, 
owing  to  the  continuity  which  reigns  in  Nature,  to 
draw  a  sharp  line  between  the  two  provinces.  Moral 
evil  may  sometimes  stand  in  close  connection  with 
physical  environment,  and  thus  give  rise  to  difficulties 
in  practice,  but  in  thought  they  not  only  are  perfectly 
separable,  but  also  must  be  separated. 

To  physical  evil,  as  we  sometimes  call  it — to  pain, 
disease,  death — I  make  no  reference.  They  were  not 
imported  into  the  world,  as  has  been  sometimes 
imagined,  at  a  late  epoch  in  its  history.  They  are 
practically  as  old  as  sensation ;  all  but  as  old  as  life. 
I  do  not  say  that  a  world  free  from  them  is  a  thing 
inconceivable,  but  it  would  not  be  this  world.  So 
long  as  matter  retains  the  properties  which  it  now 
possesses  ;  so  long  as  the  physical  forces  continue ;  so 
long  as  the  relation  of  life,  whatever  it  be,  to  organism 
be  the  same; — so  long  must  living  beings,  in  their 
season,  sicken,  suffer,  and  die.  We  may  wish  this 
otherwise,  but  it  is  inevitable,  and  we  must  con- 
sole ourselves  by  remembering  that  pain,  a  mode   of 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  63 

sensation  in  all  organized  beings,  has  obviously  been 
the  stimulus  which  has  been  a  great  factor — if  it  has 
been  nothing  more — in  their  evolution. 

But  moral  evil  seems  to  stand  in  a  different  relation 
to  living  beings.  It  is  less  difficult  to  imagine  a 
system  like  the  present  into  which  it  did  not  enter. 
But  in  inquiring  its  origin,  we  may  find  our  way 
rendered  easier  by  endeavouring  to  ascertain  what  is 
the  true  nature  of  evil.  How  shall  we  define  it  ? 
There  is  a  general  idea  that  evil  is  a  positive ;  more 
careful  consideration  will,  I  think,  show  that  this  is 
erroneous.  Its  relation  to  good  may  be  compared 
with  that  of  darkness  to  light.  The  latter  is  a 
positive,  for  it  is  a  mode  of  motion ;  the  foi'mer 
is  a  negative — no-motion,  and  so  a  relative  to  light. 
All  evil  presupposes  goodness,  from  which  it  is  a 
deviation ;  all  wrong  presupposes  right.  We  call  an 
action  right  or  wrong  because  we  try  it  by  a  standard. 
Obviously,  if  there  were  no  such  standard,  the  com- 
parison could  not  be  made.  It  follows,  therefore,  that 
the  moral  significance  of  the  action  is  relative  to  the 
standard.  Hence  if  the  latter  be  changed,  the  former 
also  changes,  and  that  which  would  be  right  under 
one  condition  of  things,  might  become  wrong  under 
another.  We  may  illustrate  this  by  the  analogy 
which  I  have  just  employed.     If  we  were   to   step 


64  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

from  the  full  sunlight  into  a  shaded  room,  this  to  us 
would  be  dark,  while  to  those  who  had  been  there  for 
long,  the  light  would  suffice  for  their  purposes.  Yet 
that  which  we  had  been  enjoying,  that,  which  made 
their  light  to  us  relatively  darkness,  to  them  for  a 
time  would  be  blinding  by  its  excess. 

Now,  what  can  we  learn  from  the  analogy  of 
Nature  ?  Its  great  stone-book  exhibits  a  gradual 
progress  in  development  among  living  beings  :  forms 
more  specialized,  that  is,  more  perfectly  in  adaptation 
to  their  environment,  replacing  those  which  are  more 
generalized.  Whatever  may  be  the  precise  explana- 
tion of  the  phenomena,  we  cannot  deny  that  even 
the  animal  world  has  been  subjected  to  a  process 
which  may  be  termed,  in  a  large  sense  of  the  word, 
an  education,  and  the  increase  of  our  knowledge  only 
deepens  the  conviction  that  this  process,  as  a  rule,  is 
continuous,  even  if  there  be  exceptional  discontinuities. 

Another  point  is  no  less  certain,  namely,  that,  what- 
ever be  the  explanation,  man,  considered  simply  as 
an  organized  being,  is  indistinguishable  from  other 
animals.  That  he  may  be  something  more  than  an 
animal  I  have  no  intention  of  denying,  but  I  affirm 
that,  if  we  restrict  ourselves  to  the  methods  of  investi- 
gation which  are  commonly  regarded  as  scientific,  we 
cannot  draw  a  hard-and-fast  line  between  him  and 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  65 

the  rest  of  the  animal  world.  Every  attempt  to  do 
this  has  been  a  failure,  and  we  must  admit — whatever 
difficulties  may  seem  to  threaten — that  any  differences 
which  can  be  discovered  are  in  degree,  not  in  kind. 
Our  sensations  are  similar,  our  emotions  are  due  to 
like  causes.  It  does  not,  however,  follow  that  the 
actions  in  which  these  result  are  identical  in  moral 
value,  simply  because  they  have  the  same  physical 
cause.  If  an  animal  acts  in  accordance  with  its  natural 
impulses,  we  do  not  consider  it  to  have  done  wrong, 
even  though  this  leads  us  to  kill  it  as  hurtful  or  ob- 
noxious to  us.  We  may  sometimes  apply  to  an  animal 
such  terms  as  "malicious,"  "murderous,"  "lustful;" 
yet  we  are  fully  aware  that  these  epithets,  with  all 
others  imputing  moral  qualities,  are  only  used  in  a 
figurative  sense.  But  in  a  man,  a  certain  course  of  action 
becomes  wrong  because  something — what  this  may  be 
is  immaterial  for  our  present  purpose ;  call  it,  if  you 
will,  an  inherited  instinct — has  told  him  that  in  such 
cases  he  must  resist  his  natural  impulses.  When,  for 
instance,  I  am  hungry,  the  sensation  has  a  history 
altogether  similar  in  myself  and  in  a  wild  animal ;  its 
purpose,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  is  the  development  and 
preservation  of  the  body.  The  animal  takes  the  first 
suitable  food  it  finds,  and  thereby  does  right,  because 
it  knows  no  other  duty  than  the  maintenance  of  its 
P 


66  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

life  and  strength  ;  but,  in  adopting  the  same  course, 
I  may  do  wrong,  because  I  have  learnt  that,  under 
certain  circumstances,  it  is  my  duty  to  suffer  rather 
than  to  gratify  my  desires. 

Do  we  not,  even  in  ourselves,  recognize  that  the 
moral  value  of  actions  changes  with  circumstances  ? 
To  take  an  obvious  example  :  Something  which  is 
the  property  of  another  attracts  the  eye  of  a  little 
child.  The  hand  is  instinctively  stretched  out  to 
take  it.  The  action  itself  is  not  regarded  as  wrong, 
though,  for  purposes  of  education,  it  may  be  checked, 
even  in  an  infant  ;  but  as  time  goes  on,  and  ideas 
of  property  are  acquired,  the  "  taking  "  becomes  "  steal- 
ing "  or  "  robbing,"  and  the  action  a  sin.  Yet  then  it 
is  condemned  by  the  moralist  more  severely  in  pro- 
portion to  the  clearness  with  which  these  ideas  have 
been  impressed  upon  and  presumably  recognized  by  the 
offender.  But  it  might  be  said  this  does  away  with 
any  absolute  standard,  and  makes  the  individual  the 
measure  of  the  moral  value  of  his  actions.  Certainly  it 
does ;  but  that  does  not  lighten  individual  responsi- 
bility. For  if  a  man  has  lost  all  sense  of  this  by 
continuous  and  deliberate  wrong-doing,  he  must  bear 
the  burden  of  having  subjected  himself  to  the  process. 
Nor  does  it  interfere  with  the  administration  of  law, 
because     that    necessarily    adopts    rough-and-ready 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  67 

methods  of  classification,  and  yet  it  now  recognizes 
extenuating  circumstances.  We  even  go  so  far  as  to 
admit  that  some  persons  are  not  responsible  for  their 
actions;  but  this  does  not  give  rise  to  any  serious 
difficulty.  In  such  a  case  the  onus  of  proving  non- 
responsibility  is  thrown  on  the  individual,  and  into 
minor  distinctions  the  law  in  many  cases  cannot 
enter,  because  its  penalties  are  measured,  not  so  much 
by  absolute  justice  to  the  individual,  as  by  the  require- 
ments of  justice  for  the  society. 

But  on  this  point  it  is  needless  to  enlarge  further, 
because  I  think  few  persons,  after  a  little  consideration, 
will  refuse  to  admit  that  the  moral  value  of  an  action 
iepends  upon  the  ethical  position  of  the  doer — that,  in 
the  Apostle's  words,  where  there  is  no  law  there  can 
be  no  sin.^ 

Goodness,  then,  in  any  race  of  beings,  would  consist 
in  perfect  conformity  with  their  environment,  using 
the  term  in  a  very  wide  sense.  Let  us  suppose  this 
to  be  in  some  way  or  other  modified — restricting  our- 
selves to  its  ethical  side.  Let  us  suppose  that  by 
some  means  an  impulse  is  received  towards  a  higher 
stage  of  existence;  that,  for  purposes  of  education, 
something  which  before  was  perfectly  legitimate  is 
forbidden,  or  some  course  of  conduct  is  enjoined  which 
'  See  Horn,  v.-vii. 


68  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

was  previously  without  precedent ;  that,  in  fact,  a  new 
ideal  of  duty  is  originated — a  ne\Y  standard  is  set  up. 
Conflict  thus  arises  between  the  old  habit  and  the 
new  impulse.  The  former— the  principle  of  heredity, 
as  we  may  call  it — urges  to  inaction  or  to  one  course 
of  conduct ;  the  latter,  the  new  motive  force,  to 
another.  We  must  assume  the  existence  of  a  power 
of  selection,  of  choice,  of  free-will ;  for  without  this, 
moral  responsibility  cannot  exist.  At  once  that  which 
we  call  evil  becomes  possible — potentially  it  comes 
into  existence.  To  follow  the  new  course  is  right;  to 
abide  in  the  old,  though  formerly  it  was  right,  has 
become  wrong.  Hence  evil  is  inseparable  in  thought 
from  every  system  of  progressive  moral  development, 
provided  that  the  individuals  be  capable  of  exercising 
choice.  If  one  of  them,  instead  of  obeying  the  onward 
and  upward  impulse,  elects  to  continue  in  his  former 
condition,  the  preference  for  the  status  quo,  as  we 
may  call  it,  though  it  formerly  constituted  good,  has 
now  become  evil. 

Suppose,  as  an  illustration,  that  the  ethical  state 
of  a  group  of  living  creatures  is  represented  by 
the  movements  of  a  number  of  points,  and  that 
goodness  is  signified  by  these  taking  place  in  a 
particular  plane.  Suppose  also  that — owing  to  some 
previous  influence,  the  nature  of  which  is  immaterial — 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  69 

they  take  place  in  this  plane  :  we  have  thus  a  perma- 
nent goodness.  But  now  suppose  the  plane  to  become 
a  surface  curving  upwards  (which  introduces  the  idea 
of  a  discontinuity),  while  at  the  same  time  the  points 
are  influenced  by  a  force  which  of  itself  would  cause 
them  to  move  in  a  new  direction.  At  once  there  is  a 
conflict  between  this  and  the  tendency  of  movement 
already  acquired.  Some  modification  must  result.  It 
may  be  that  the  new  attraction  will  retain  the  points 
in  the  new  surface,  but  it  may  be  that  the  acquired 
tendency  will  cause  them  to  deviate  from  it.  By  so 
doing,  even  by  remaining  in  the  original  plane,  they 
assume  a  position  wliich  is  relatively  evil,  though,  of 
course,  to  make  it  really  this,  as  we  interpret  the 
word,  we  must  conceive  the  points  endowed  with  a 
power  of  choice,  whether  they  will  or  will  not  yield 
to  the  new  influence. 

It  follows,  then,  that  evil  has  its  orio^in,  not  in  a 
departure  from  an  ideal  perfection,  but  in  a  refusal  to 
obey  the  impulses  tending  towards  an  ideal  perfection. 
While  we  cannot  deny  the  possibility  of  its  existence 
in  beings  other  than  ourselves,  we  can  only — so  long 
as  we  restrict  ourselves  to  this  world,  of  which  alone 
our  perceptions  can  take  cognizance — affirm  its  exist- 
ence in  our  own  race,  because  we  cannot  prove  that 
a  sense  of  moral  responsibility  exists   in  any  other. 


70  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

Still  analogous  conditions  may  be  found  elsewhere 
among  living  creatures ;  for  obviously  evil  is  incon- 
ceivable in  the  inorganic  world.  In  the  great  stone- 
book  of  Nature  we  read  the  history  of  many  a  race 
which  has  proved  incapable  of  adapting  itself  to  a 
changed  environment,  and  has  paid  the  penalty  by 
deterioration,  suffering,  and  ultimate  extinction ;  but 
we  alone,  so  far  as  we  know,  can  deliberately  resist 
the  great  evolutionary^  purpose,  can  be  as  Gods,  know- 
ing good  and  evil,  and  choose  the  latter — that  is  to  say, 
with  a  power  of  recognizing  the  upward  tendency,  can 
deliberately  prefer  to  continue  in  the  lower  condition. 
Can  we  advance  any  further  in  our  inquiry  ?  We 
learn  from  science  that,  structurally,  man  cannot  be 
differentiated  from  the  rest  of  the  animal  world.  An 
inductive  treatment  of  the  whole  body  of  facts  which 
can  be  collected  in  relation  to  his  history,  socially  as 
well  as  physiologically,  may  indeed  justify  the  sus- 
picion that  he  is  something  more;  but  it  can  go  no 
further,  and  for  any  actual  knowledge  we  must  be 
indebted  to  revelation.  This  tells  us  that  in  man's  com- 
posite nature  there  is  a  spiritual  factor,  but  gives  us  no 
definite  information — why  should  it  ? — as  to  the  bodily 
factor.  It  soon  becomes  evident  that  the  statements 
in  Scripture  concerning  the  latter  cannot  be  pressed 
in  a  sense  strictly  literal,  but  must  be   regarded   as 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  71 

figurative  or  expressive  of  relative  rather  than  actual 
knowledge.  If  we  refuse  to  admit  this,  we  have  no 
other  choice  than  to  repudiate  the  evidence  of  our 
senses  and  the  use  of  our  reason,  and  blindly  to  sub- 
mit to  some  authority ;  though  without  these  I  do  not 
see  how  we  can  test  its  claims  to  be  obeyed. 

As  I  suppose  we  should  be  unwilling  to  adopt  the 
latter  course,  we  may  legitimately  seek  information 
from  the  results  of  scientific  study.  These,  in  the 
opinion  of  some  well  qualified  to  speak,  lead  to  the 
conclusion  that,  whatever  discontinuity  there  may  be 
in  the  history  of  man  as  a  living  soul,  to  use  the 
ordinary  phrase,  he  also  is  an  example  of  the  great 
law  of  continuity,  and  that  his  bodily  part  is  strictly 
animal  in  its  origin;  that  just  as  there  is  in  the 
embryonic  individual  a  process  of  development  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest  type  of  organism,  so  it  was 
in  the  embryonic  race.  Thus  the  ''  body  of  this  death," 
as  the  Apostle  so  truly  calls  it,  is  our  inheritance  from 
the  animal  world ;  our  passions  are  the  survival  of 
instincts  transmitted  from  an  animal  ancestry,  which 
the  Spirit  now  calls  upon  us  to  check  and  to  mortify. 
It  is  this  new  birth  of  the  race,  this  impulse  to 

"  Move  upward,  working  out  the  beast, 
And  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die,"  ' 

^  Tennyson,  In  Memoriam,  cxviii. 


72  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

which  has  made  these  iDstincts  evil,  has  made  evil 
possible — has  been,  in  a  sense,  the  beginning  of  sin. 

This  idea  as  to  the  descent  of  the  bodily  part  of 
man  from  an  animal  ancestry  cannot,  it  is  true,  be 
reckoned  among  the  conclusions  of  science,  but  it  is 
an  hypothesis,  the  evidence  for  which  has  certainly 
become  stronger  with  the  progress  of  knowledge.  It 
is  one  which,  I  am  well  aware,  has  greatly  startled 
and  shocked  many  earnest  Christians.  It  has  been 
supposed  to  involve  a  denial  of  moral  responsibility 
and  of  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  constituent  in 
human  nature.  What  I  have  said  has,  I  hope,  made 
it  evident  that  this  opinion  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
human  race  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  admission 
of  both  the  one  and  the  other.  To  deny  the  former, 
indeed,  would,  as  it  appears  to  me,  be  difficult  for  a 
scientific  man ;  for  it  seems  to  meet  with  general 
acceptation  as  the  result  of  an  inductive  treatment  of 
facts,  quite  apart  from  any  statements  of  a  supposed 
revelation.  To  deny  the  latter  would  obviously  be  as 
impossible  as  to  affirm  it,  as  a  result  of  scientific 
processes,  because  these  could  not  take  us  beyond  a 
probability  for  it  or  against  it. 

But  some  difficulties,  which  admittedly  exist,  seem  to 
be  explained  by  this  idea,  while  those  which  it  is  sup- 
posed to  create  have  no  existence  if  once  we  recognize 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  73 

the  facts — as  they  appear  to  me — that  revelation  is 
progressive  and  in  certain  cases  relative ;  that  its  end 
is  not  to  tell  us  the  solution  of  problems  which  we 
may  discover  for  ourselves,  sooner  or  later,  by  patient 
labour,  but  to  raise  a  veil  which  our  hands  could  not 
have  moved  or  even  touched,  to  lead  us  onwards  and 
upwards  through  this  world's  drifting  clouds  and  per- 
plexing mists  towards  that  eternal  light  on  which 
mortal  eyes  cannot  gaze,  to  that  boundless  love 
which  has  deemed  our  frail  and  faulty  natures  worth 
lifting  upwards  and  preserving  for  some  work,  in  seons 
yet  to  come,  in  spheres  to  us  as  yet  unknown,  where 
sin  cannot  enter,  because  the  "  body  of  this  death " 
will  have  crumbled  to  its  harmless  elements  of  in- 
organic and  consequently  innocent  matter,  because 
the  will  of  the  redeemed  soul  will  be  in  perfect  con- 
formity with  the  will  of  God,  and  the  body  which 
then  shall  be,  if  one  with  this  in  its  vital  principle, 
will  be  free  from  the  law  of  heredity,  for  there  will 
be  no  continuity  of  corporeal  organism.  Such  "  is  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead.  It  is  sown  in  corruption; 
it  is  raised  in  incorruption  :  it  is  sown  in  dishonour ; 
it  is  raised  in  glory:  it  is  sown  in  weakness;  it  is 
raised  in  power :  it  is  sown  a  natural  body ;  it  is 
raised  a  spiritual  body." 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY  (Boyle  Lectures,  No.  VI.).' 

"The  Lord  passed  by  before  him,  and  proclaimed,  The 
Lord,  Tlie  Lord  God,  merciful,  and  gracious,  long-suffering, 
and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for 
thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin,  and 
that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty ;  visiting  the  iniquity 
of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  children's 
children." — Exod.  xxxiv.  6,  7. 

Are  the  clauses  of  this  remarkable  passage  con- 
tradictor}^ ?  Do  they  ascribe  to  God  attributes  which 
cannot  be  reconciled  ?  That  is  not  an  uncommon 
opinion.  Perhaps,  however,  they  may  be  softened  or 
explained  away  in  the  fuller  light  of  the  Gospel  dis- 
pensation. But  Christianity  is  often  supposed  to  be 
yet  more  uncompromising.  It  teaches,  in  the  opinion 
of  one  of  its  critics,  "  the  visiting  on  Adam's  descend- 
ants, through  hundreds  of  generations,  dreadful 
penalties  for  a  small  transgression  which  they  did  not 
commit;  the  damning  of  all  men  who  do  not  avail 

^  Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall,  on  ihe  Fourth  Sunday 
after  Trinity,  1890. 

74 


CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  75 

themselves  of  an  alleged  mode  of  obtaining  forgive- 
ness, which  most  men  have  never  heard  of;  and  the 
effecting  a  reconciliation  by  sacrificing  a  Son  who  was 
perfectly  innocent,  to  satisfy  the  assumed  necessity 
for  a  propitiatory  victim."  ^  This,  I  say,  is  considered 
to  be  a  fair  statement  of  its  doctrine.  To  myself  it 
appears  to  be  a  caricature,  but  I  must  sorrowfully 
admit  that,  if  we  accept  the  dogmas  of  some  Churches 
and  the  opinions  of  not  a  few  individuals  as  a  fair 
statement  of  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament,  this 
picture  can  hardly  be  called  exaggerated. 

Under  these  circumstances,  let  us  endeavour  to 
ascertain  whether  the  Book  of  Nature  throws  any 
light  on  this  dark  place  in  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
when  it  states  that  God  will  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty,  but  will  visit  iniquity  even  upon  their 
descendants.  For  my  present  purpose,  I  must  exclude 
one  topic — that  of  the  Atonement — mentioned  in  the 
passage  which  I  have  just  quoted,  because  it  would 
require  a  much  fuller  consideration  than  it  could 
possibly  receive  within  my  present  limits,  and  because 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  assert  that  the  clause  relating  to 
it  is  a  parody,  not,  indeed,  without  some  justification, 
but  still  a  parody  of  the  Christian  doctrine  as  it 
may  be  inferred  from  Scripture. 

^  Herbert  Spencer,  Ecclesiastical  Institutions,  §  658. 


76  THE   PRESENT  CONFLICT 

What,  then,  ave  we  taught  there  in  regard  to  the 
remainder  of  these  questions  ?  If  we  lay  aside  a 
theological  terminology,  and  any  discussion  of  the 
modes,  if  one  may  so  call  them,  in  which  Divine  grace 
— as  it  appears  to  the  Christian — operates  upon  the 
soul  of  man,  it  amounts,  I  think,  to  this,  that  our 
life  here  on  earth  is  a  state  of  trial ;  that  its  issues  are 
eternal, — the  goals  are  life  and  death ;  that  sin  or 
error  brings  its  punishment,  the  effects  of  which  reach 
further  than  the  original  wrong-doer.  We  are  told,  in 
short,  that  life  is  a  conflict,  sometimes  apparently 
against  heavy  odds,  where  success  is  uncertain  and 
failure  more  than  possible. 

This  is  held  to  be  hard  measure.  Be  it  so  or  not, 
let  us  see  how  far  it  accords  with  the  analogy  of 
Nature.  What  do  we  learn  from  this  ?  It  discloses 
four  great  laws  by  which  all  life  is  governed.  These 
are :  first,  the  law  of  trial — the  conflict  with  the 
environment,  the  struggle  for  existence  against  the 
forces  of  Nature  and  the  other  forms  of  life,  in  which, 
as  the  conditions  of  the  warfare  change,  so  must  the 
tactics  of  the  combatant  be  correspondingly  altered. 
The  second  is  the  law  of  inheritance — the  principle 
of  heredity,  as  it  is  often  called.  Each  generation 
receives  from  its  ancestry  both  good  and  ill,  adapta- 
bilities and  opponencies  to  its  environment;  it  is  heir 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  77 

to  the  characteristics,  physical  and  mental,  of  its 
progenitors,  alike  to  their  strength  and  their  weakness. 
The  third  is  the  law  of  reward — we  call  it  in  science 
"  the  survival  of  the  fittest."  "  To  him  that  over- 
cometh,"  if  we  may  venture  to  use  the  words  in  a 
lower  sense,  "  I  will  ffive  a  crown  of  life,"  is  the  law 
of  Nature  as  well  as  of  grace.  The  fourth  is  the  law 
of  doom.  "  Woe  to  the  conquered  ! "  is  the  inscription 
graven  deep  on  the  crags  of  the  earth.  Nature  is 
inexorable;  vshe  condones  no  failure,  remits  no  penalty. 
The  rocks  are  full  of  the  records  of  long- vanished 
races,  which  have  lived  their  day,  fought  their  fight, 
and  perished  in  the  struggle,  to  give  place  to  higher 
and  more  capable  organizations.  Here,  again,  a  phrase 
from  revelation  may  be  applied  to  Nature,  though  in 
a  lower  sense ;  her  doom  is  this :  "  The  soul  that 
sinneth,  it  shall  die." 

Such  are  the  lessons  of  Nature.  Is  the  teaching 
of  Christianity — divested  of  technicalities — so  very 
different  ?  It  amounts  to  this  :  Cause  and  consequence 
stand  in  their  invariable  and  unalterable  relation. 
Before  you — it  seems  to  tell  us — are  two  paths,  the 
one  straight  and  narrow,  on  which  the  Spirit  is  guide, 
of  which  the  goal  is  life ;  the  other,  broad  and  easy, 
on  which  the  animal  nature  leads,  of  which  the  croal 
is  destruction.     Surely,  though  the  circumstances  be 


78  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

different,  the  principle  is  the  same,  and  we  cannot 
affirm  that  there  is  one  rule  in  Nature,  another  in  Grace. 

But,  you  may  reply,  "  The  words  which  have  been 
read  offend  us  most  in  this  respect,  that  they  proclaim 
unhesitatingly  that  the  innocent  shall  suffer  for  the 
guilty,  and  this  is  repugnant  to  our  sense  of  justice." 

But,  I  may  ask,  is  there  anything  in  this  rule 
exceptional,  abnormal,  unprecedented  ?  The  innocent 
suffer  for  the  guilty  !  How  can  it  be  otherwise  ?  When 
do  they  not  suffer?  Can  a  man  squander  his  property, 
whether  through  sin  or  through  unwisdom,  without 
consequential  injury  to^  those  who  are  dependent  on 
him  ?  Can  he  ruin  his  health  by  vicious  living,  with- 
out giving  cause  to  every  child  born  of  his  body 
to  curse  his  father's  sins  ?  Have  you  never  heard  of 
congenital  diseases,  of  ancestral  taints  of  blood,  of 
hereditary  phthisis,  scrofula,  insanity,  and  the  like  ? 
Not  a  day  passes  but  thousands  of  children  are  born 
into  this  world,  doomed  by  parental  vice  to  a  crippled 
existence  or  to  a  premature  grave.^ 

Again,  consider  the  case  of  a  nation.  This  is  a  true 
saying,  though  it  be  not  of  Christian  origin :  "  The 
princes  play  the  fool ;  the  people  pay  the  penalty."  ^ 

*  If  proof  of  this  statement  be  needed,  I  may  refer  to  such  a  work  as 
that  on  SypMlU  and  the  Nervous  System  {Lettsomian  Lectures),  by  Dr. 
W.  R.  Gowers,  F.R.S.     See  Lancet,  1889,  vol.  i.  p.  63,  etc. 

2  "  Quicquid  deliraut  reges,  plectuutur  Achivi,"  Hor.,  1  Ep.  2.  14. 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  79 

It  may  be  altered  for  a  democracy  without  loss  of 
accuracy :  for  "  princes,"  read  "  majority ;  "  for 
"  people,"  read  "  minority."  This  law  is  writ  large 
on  the  pages  of  history.  Greek,  Jew,  Roman,  all  in 
their  turn  have  suffered  for  national  crime,  national 
vice,  and  national  folly.  The  history  of  modern 
Europe  repeats  the  same  lesson ;  it  proclaims  the 
operation  of  the  eternal  and  inevitable  laws  of  God, 
that  words,  if  they  do  not  proceed  from  His  mouth, 
fail  to  sustain  the  life  of  man;  that  self-indulgence, 
whatever  form  it  takes,  cannot  be  substituted  for  duty 
as  a  guiding  principle,  nor  molluscous  sentimentality 
for  the  plain  rule  of  the  Decalogue  ;  that  the  vices  of 
an  aristocracy  work  a  heavy  retribution,  and  the 
"  fool-fury "  of  democracy  brings  a  yet  worse  ruin. 
Many  a  time  has  this  proverb  come  true  in  the  past, 
many  a  time  will  it  come  true  in  the  future,  let 
England  be  sure  of  that :  "  The  fathers  have  eaten 
sour  grapes  " — no  doubt  to  their  own  sorrow — "  and 
the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge."  ^ 

It  might  be  possible  to  imagine  an  order  of  things 
in  which  each  individual  bore  only  his  own  burden ; 
but  this  Utopia  would  not  present  the  slightest 
resemblance  to  the  present  world,  for  from  it  we  must 
abstract  every  idea  of  parentage,  relationship,  and 
'  Ezek.  xviii.  2. 


8o  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

mutuality.  Each  individual  in  it  must  be  self-com- 
plete, self-centred,  and  independently  originated.  But 
the  interdependence  of  the  human  race,  and  of  all 
others  that  we  know,  is  a  fact  as  essential  to  the  world's 
order  as  gravitation  itself,  and  is  no  more  capable  of 
being  excluded  from  it.  After  all,  viewing  the  ques- 
tion broadly,  is  it  so  unjust  that  we  should  be  heirs 
to  our  forefathers'  losses  as  well  as  to  their  gains  ? 
If  a  man  leaves  you  his  property,  you  cannot  repudi- 
ate his  liabilities  ! 

"Bat" — I  think  I  can  hear  our  critic  urge — "do 
you  admit  that  men  will  be  damned  to  eternity  for 
not  availing  themselves  of  a  mode  of  obtaining  for- 
giveness of  which  they  have  never  heard  ?  "  I  admit 
no  more  than  this  truism,  that  if  I  have  never  heard 
of  Christ,  I  cannot  be  saved  by  the  knowledge  of 
Him,  and  that  consequences  must  follow  causes ;  but 
beyond  this  I  decline  to  go ;  for  to  express  an  opinion 
upon  a  case,  the  circumstances  of  which  I  have  no 
means  of  ascertaining,  would  be  an  unscientific  pro- 
ceedinof.  But  inasmuch  as  even  man  recoo^nizes 
readily  the  diflference  between  a  deed  done  with  full 
knowledge  of  its  wrongfulness,  and  the  same  done  in 
ignorance,  and  punishes,  if  he  does  it  in  the  latter  case, 
in  the  hope  of  educating  either  the  individual  or  the 
society,  I  find  no  diflaculty  in  believing  that  the  all- 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY,  8i 

knowino'  Lord  of  earth  and  heaven  will  not  be  fettered 

o 

by  the  imperfect  legal  forms  of  human  procedure,  but 
will  emphatically  do  what  is  right.  I  trust  Him,  in 
Whom  justice  and  love  are  alike  perfect ;  and  should 
I  presume  to  ask,  "Lord,  and  how  shall  this  man 
fare?"  I  seem  to  hear  Him  answer,  "What  is  that 
to  thee  ?     Follow  thou  Me." 

An  objection,  however,  may  be  made  to  the  analogy 
for  which  I  have  sought  in  Nature.  This  analogy,  it 
is  urged,  is  misleading ;  for  the  consequences  in  the 
natural  order  are  temporal,  while  in  the  spiritual 
order  they  are  eternal.  The  objection  is  less  valid 
than  it  seems.  What  consequences  are  not  eternal  ? 
Can  I,  can  you,  undo  that  which  has  been  done  ?  No  ; 
that — I  say  it  with  all  reverence — is  beyond  the 
power  of  God  Himself.  I  may  remedy,  He  may 
remedy,  the  mistake.  The  hurt,  the  fall,  through 
His  loving-kindness,  may  be  made  to  work  with  all 
things  together  for  good.  The  battle  lost,  by  the 
help  of  the  great  Commander  may  be  turned  into  a 
battle  won ;  ^  but  not  seldom  the  defeat  is  in  the 
temporal  order,  the  victory  in  the  spiritual.  There 
are  many  things  in  this  life — failures,  losses,  sorrows, 
sins,  which,  however  they  may  be  softened  by  lapse 

^  The  allusion,  of  course,  is  to  the  remark  of  Desaix  to  Napoleon 
at  Marengo. 


^2  THE  PRESENT  COXFLICT 

of  time,   repaired   or   alleviated   by   future   gains  or 
joys,  can  never  be  set  right. 

Consider  an  instance,  trite  though  it  be.  The 
"  desire  of  our  eyes  may  be  taken  from  us  with  a 
stroke " — be  this  friend,  or  child,  or  partner  of  life. 
God  may  hj  this  grief  draw  us  nearer  to  Him ;  but 
henceforth  a  shadow  darkens  our  path  in  life  where 
once  there  was  unclouded  brightness;  there  is  an 
aching  void  where  once  there  was  helpful  com 
panionship. 

To  take  another  instance.  Suppose  that  health  has 
been  lost — say  from  vicious  living.  Can  this  be  re- 
stored by  any  repentance  ?  God  may  so  dispose  the 
allotted  path  of  inevitable  suffering  as  to  find  a  use 
even  for  the  consequences  of  our  evil  deeds ;  man  may 
so  learn  the  bitter  lesson  from  the  wages  of  sin  as  to 
rise  on  stepping-stones  of  his  dead  self  to  higher 
things ;  but  even  if,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  crooked 
miay  be  made  straight,  that  w^hich  the  canker  worm 
hath  eaten  cannot  be  recovered — the  lost  limb,  so  to 
say,  cannot  be  restored. 

But  on  this  topic  I  need  not  enlarge.  Unless  we 
suppose  that  a  miracle  be  wrought,  the  consequences 
of  our  actions  are  eternal.  Happy  the  man  whose 
memory  is  not  haunted  by  more  than  one  golden 
cloud-palace  of  the  "might  have  been"  ! 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  83 

But  I  may  still  be  charged  with  eluding  the  issue. 
I  declare,  it  may  be  urged,  eternal  suffering  to  be  the 
penalty  of  sin.  As  this  is  a  subject  on  which  by  my 
own  powers  I  can  know  nothing,  I  restrict  myself  to 
the  words  of  revelation.  But  these  I  accept  in  what 
appears  to  be  their  plain  natural  sense,  into  which  I 
decline  to  read  meanings,  however  popular  and  preva- 
lent they  may  be,  when  I  can  discover  for  them  no 
authority  which  is  more  than  human.  In  revelation 
I  am  told  that  eternal  life  is  the  gift  of  God  to  man, 
and  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  Him  and  of  Jesus 
Christ,  Whom  He  sent  into  the  world ;  that  the  punish- 
ment of  sin  is  sure,  and  can  only  be  averted,  if  indeed 
it  can  wholly  be  averted,  by  repentance ;  and  that  the 
ways  of  the  sinner  conduct  him,  not  to  eternal  life,  but 
to  eternal  death.  This  I  fully  believe ;  this  appears 
to  me  in  harmony  with  the  analogy  of  nature.  The 
consideration  of  how  far  it  corresponds  with  our 
critic's  assumption,  or  accords  with  popular  ideas,  is 
an  inquiry  too  long  for  the  present  occasion,  and 
immaterial  for  our  immediate  purpose.  Enough  that 
I  believe  in  retribution,  since  I  believe  injustice.^ 

To  conclude.  Suppose  we  grant  that  the  Gospel 
proclaims  a  hard  message  when  it  says,  "  Sin,  and  you 

^  This  subject  is  noticed,  ratlier  more  fully,  in  another  sermon  in 
this  volume  (No.  IX.). 


84  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

shall  suffer;  sin,  and  you  will  find  you  have  hatched 
a  brood  of  ugly  facts,  which  no  smooth  w^ords  will 
deprive  of  vitality.  Like  young  snakes,  they  slip 
away  among  the  herbage,  and  you  cannot  allure  them 
back  to  be  killed,  charm  you  never  so  wisely  !  '  Many 
are  called,  but  few  chosen ; '  '  The  wages  of  sin  is 
death.' "  Is  that  so  hard  a  message  ?  Are  you 
offended  that  this  is  in  the  Gospel,  which  the  God  of 
love  Himself  proclaimed  ?  Nature's  message  is  in 
identical  terms,  and  differs  only  in  this,  that  its  tones 
are  a  thousandfold  more  hopeless.  She  knows  neither 
ruth  nor  pity.  On  her  course  she  goes.  Her  path  is 
like  that  of  some  vast  machine,  beneath  whose  wheels, 
as  they  roll  onwards,  myriad,  myriad  sufferers  are 
crushed,  from  whose  walls  the  darts  of  death  fly  forth, 
at  random  as  it  seems,  to  smite  their  helpless  victims 
in  the  terror-stricken  crowd.  Nature  merciful !  Why, 
in  comparison  with  her,  the  granite  rock  is  soft,  the 
tiger  is  an  emblem  of  tenderness. 

She  points  to  no  Utopia ;  she  offers  neither  pardon 
nor  redress  behind  the  veil ;  she  declares  not  only  the 
inevitable  supremacy  of  law,  but  also,  it  would  seem, 
the  wantonness  of  cruel  chance.  This  is  all  the 
comfort  she  can  give — if  I  have  understood  her  voice 
aright :  "  After  that  you  have  suffered,  I  promise  you 
extinction.     I    can  no  more.     Do   you   say  you  had 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  85 

better  never  have  been  born  ?     Perhaps  so ;  I  cannot 
help  that." 

Suppose,  then,  we  grant  that  the  path  which  revela- 
tion indicates  may  seem  sometimes  dark  with  gloomy 
shadows,  this  at  least  we  may  claim,  that  it  is  bright 
as  with  the  perfect  day  in  comparison  with  that 
which  Nature  shows.  Each  may  be  beset  with  sorrow 
and  suffering,  but  the  "  way  of  the  Cross "  leads  at 
length  to  the  peace  of  heaven  and  the  undimmed 
gladness  of  eternal  life ;  the  way  of  Nature  can  offer 
no  better  reward  than  extinction,  no  other  peace  than 
that  of  annihilation. 


THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY  (Boyle  Lectures,  No.  VII.).' 

"  Be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing,  that  one  day  is  with 
the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one 
day.  The  Lord  is  not  slack  concerning  His  promise,  as  some 
men  count  shickness." — 2  Pet.  hi.  8,  9. 

"  All  things  come  alike  to  all :  there  is  one  event 
to  the  righteous  and  to  the  wicked."  This,  many 
would  tell  us,  is  the  sole  inference  which  can  be 
drawn  from  facts,  whether  they  be  those  of  Nature  or 
of  history ;  it  is  the  one  conclusion  to  which  scientific 
methods  of  thought  must  lead.  '  Your  dream  of 
immortality,'  men  say ;  '  your  hopes  of  a  continued 
personal  life  are  founded  upon  a  series  of  alleged 
events  which  have  no  warrant  in  history,  other  than 
the  illusions  of  some  excitable  and  credulous  disciples. 
We  see,  in  the  evolution  of  the  earth  and  of  its 
tenants,  power,  but  not  purpose ;  energy,  but  not  God.' 

"  The  life  of  man  is  as  the  flowers  of  the  field." 

'  Preached  at  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall,  on  the  Fifth  Sunday 
after  Trinity,  1890. 

86 


CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  87 

These,  in  their  season,  put  forth  bud  and  blossom. 
They  dapple  the  meadows,  they  spangle  the  forest, 
they  kindle  the  moorland  into  a  glow  of  colour,  but, 
like  the  sunset  flush,  they  fade  away,  less  transient 
than  it  in  this  alone,  that  they  have  helped  in 
perpetuating  the  race.  "  You  think,"  men  say,  "  that 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  brings  you  a  message  of  hope  ;  but 
how  far  is  that  substantiated  by  facts  ? "  Very  little,  if 
we  may  trust  appearances.  "  It  is  nineteen  centuries," 
they  continue,  "  since  that  Gospel  was  preached,  and 
what  real  influence  has  it  obtained  in  the  world  ?  That 
is  enough  to  show  what  a  futility  your  prayer,  '  Thy 
kingdom  come,'  has  proved.  The  failure  of  Chris- 
tianity is  its  condemnation ;  for  it  does  not  satisfy  the 
most  convincing  of  all  tests,  that  of  experiment." 

"  The  time  is  long  ;  the  work  is  without  a  purpose." 
Let  us,  then,  see  whether  the  analogy  of  Nature  can 
give  us  any  help  in  this  perplexity ;  whether  the 
same  criticism,  the  same  complaint,  might  not  have 
been  made  by  overhasty  onlookers  full  often  in  the 
past,  and  what  answer  it  has  received  from  the  logic 
of  facts  in  the  process  of  the  ages.  If  we  grant  that 
change  is  slow,  does  Nature  justify  us  in  adding,  "  but 
it  is  also  sure  "  ?  In  our  investigation  of  her  ways,  we 
must  not  expect  to  discover  any  message  of  hope  for 
the   individual ;  for  him,  as   it  seems  to  me,  she  has 


88  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

ever  but  cold  comfort.  Something,  however,  would  be 
gained  if  we  succeeded  in  obtaining  only  thus  much 
for  our  encouragement,  that  our  labour  in  this  world 
is  not  a  mere  making  of  ropes  of  sand,  so  that,  whether 
we  have  our  wages  or  not,  it  is  better  to  work  than  to 
sit  still  with  folded  hands. 

It  is,  indeed,  possible  that  occasionally  in  the  past 
teleological  arguments  may  have  been  pressed  too  far ; 
but  we  are  in  danger  of  undervaluing  them  at  the 
present  time.  Nature  and  History  alike  bear  witness, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  to  "an  increasing  purpose."  The 
phenomena  of  this  earth's  evolution  can  hardly  be 
understood  except  as  a  manifestation  of  Mind;  and 
their  evidence,  positive  and  negative  alike,  appear  to 
warrant  the  inference  that,  besides  purpose,  there  may 
be  love. 

They  teach  also,  it  seems  to  me,  another  lesson — it 
is  that  of  patience ;  they  utter  a  warning — it  is 
against  a  hasty  judgment.  "  Why,"  we  are  tempted 
to  ask,  ''  if  Christianity  is  from  God,  has  it  not 
triumphed  ?  Why  does  He  delay  so  long  to  reveal 
Himself  and  to  help  His  servants  ?  " 

This  question  we  cannot  pretend  to  answer.  But 
we  can  at  least  reply  that  it  is  what  the  analogy  of 
Nature  would  lead  us  to  expect.  For  that  lesson  we 
have  to   thank  science.     Once  we  thought  that  this 


OF  SCIENCE   AND   THEOLOGY.  89 

world,  but  a  very  few  thousand  years  ago,  came  into 
sudden  existence,  as  at  the  waving  of  an  enchanter's 
wand.  Now  we  have  learnt  that  through  millions  of 
years  it  has  been  slowly  changing  from  nebula  to 
solid,  from  incandescent  orb  to  the  fit  abode  of  living 
creatures.  Glance  at  epochs  in  its  history,  if  it  be  but 
for  a  moment,  to  convince  yourselves  that  this  is 
true.  Millions  of  years  ago — how  many  we  cannot  tell 
— long  after  the  earth's  glowing  crust  had  cooled,  and 
the  water  had  gathered  in  the  ocean-depths,  the 
scene  differed  strangely  from  that  which  our  eyes 
now  behold.  Let  us  imagine  ourselves  led,  by  some 
immortal  guide,  as  in  a  vision  of  poet  or  prophet, 
along  the  "  corridors  of  time."  What  pictures  do  we 
see  ?  There  is  the  earth,  warmed  by  the  sun, 
moistened  by  the  rain ;  the  surf  beats  on  the  rock- 
bound  coast;  the  streams  leap  down  the  mountain- 
side ;  the  rhythmic  processes  of  the  physical  forces  are 
the  same  as  now.  But  except  from  these,  there  is  no 
other  sound.  The  silence  is  unbroken  by  the  cry  of 
beast  or  note  of  bird.  The  world  is  a  waste,  one  vast 
desert  of  herbless  land  and  lifeless  sea.  To  what 
profit  is  this  globe,  this  monstrous  orb  of  rock,  which 
whirls  its  useless  way  through  space  ?  So  we  might 
well  have  asked.  But  wait  and  see.  Let  millions  of 
years  pass,  and  again  regard  the  earth.    Herbage  clothes 


90  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

the  soil,  trees  rise  on  high,  the  waters  teem  with  life, 
the  land  has  its  creatures.  Yet  how  strano^e  are  all 
these!  "Plants  and  animals,"  the  voice  of  science 
might  say,  "are  alike  lowly  in  organization.  The 
trees  are  little  better  than  overgrown  reeds  and  club- 
mosses  ;  the  animals  at  best  do  not  rise  above  magnified 
toads."  Look  also  at  those  miasmatic  swamps,  so 
dismal  to  our  eyes.  Is  this  all  that  the  Divine  Energy 
can  effect  ?  "  Well,"  our  guide  might  reply,  "  but  for  this 
rank  vegetation,  these  swamps  which  you  despise,  a 
certain  coming  race,  about  which  you  do  know  a  very 
little,  would  find  itself  without  its  coal-fields,  and 
thus  be  deprived  of  a  potent  factor  in  its  course  of 
progress." 

Years  roll  on  in  their  countless  thousands  as  you 
watch  the  changeful  vision  of  life  displayed  upon  the 
surface  of  the  globe,  and  at  every  and  any  epoch  you 
might  ask  the  same  question :  Why  ?  For  what 
purpose  ?  Wherefore  this  delay  ?  Millions  of  years 
were  spent  in  making  the  world ;  millions  of  years  in 
preparation  for  a  being  who,  Avhatever  his  destiny, 
can  at  any  rate  appreciate  the  marvels  by  which  he  is 
surrounded,  can  rise  above  the  things  of  sense,  and, 
by  the  use  of  reason,  search  after  the  unknown  and 
even  grope  after  the  unknowable. 

Of  all   these  countless  years,  of  all  these  endless 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  91 

chano-es,  man — we  ourselves,  we,  the  lords  of  creation, 
have  been  the  outcome.  Life's  first  germ  on  this  earth's 
surface,  whenever  and  whatever  it  may  have  been,  in 
the  dim  distance  of  those  unnumbered  years,  was  in 
a  sense  the  first  germ  of  ourselves ;  its  varied  history 
does  but  record  the  phases  in  that  long  period  of 
gestation  which  has  ended  in  the  birth  of  the  human 
race.  "  How  slow  1 "  we  might  have  exclaimed  again 
and  again.  Yes,  but  how  sure  !  "  How  fruitless  !  " 
This  might  have  been  again  and  again  our  verdict. 
Yes ;  everything  seems  useless  till  time  teaches  you  its 
utility. 

I  claim,  then,  that  for  the  race— I  do  not  speak  of 
the  individual — the  earth's  history  tells  its  tale  of 
purpose,  not  of  the  blind  working  of  physical  forces ; 
of  purpose,  which,  if  you  will  not  call  it  beneficent,  has, 
at  any  rate,  had  progress  for  its  result  so  uniformly 
as  to  justify  us  in  regarding  it  as  tending  to  that 
end. 

Once  more.  Look  back  on  the  history  of  the  human 
race ;  for  man  also  is  a  unit  in  the  great  and  complex 
scheme  of  Nature.  Again  I  say  that  this  deprives  us, 
more  completely  than  heretofore,  of  any  ground  for 
expecting  rapid  change  or  precipitate  action.  Once 
we  supposed  that  man's  history  began  some  six 
thousand  years  ago.     Nay,  that  practically  it  could  not 


92  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

be  dated  so  far  back ;  for  the  race,  not  much  more 
than  four  thousand  years  since,  was  reduced  to  a 
single  family — by  whom,  as  we  believed,  "  the  whole 
earth  was  overspread."  What  has  science  declared  to 
us  ?  We  can  now  perceive  the  dawn  of  history  in 
ages  which  once  seemed  hopelessly  dark.  Our  horizon 
has  been  widened,  the  date  of  the  genesis  of  the 
human  race — be  that  what  it  may — recedes  into  a 
dim  and  distant  past.  For  we  know  not  how  many 
thousand  years,  races  of  men  have  come  and  gone  on 
the  face  of  this  earth.  Even  in  our  own  island — then 
a  part  of  the  continent — savage  tribes,  like  those 
which  linger  on  the  Greenland  coasts,  once  shaped 
the  rough  flints  into  rude  tools,  and  hunted,  upon 
its  ice-bound  shores,  wild  beasts  which  have  since 
vanished  from  the  face  of  the  globe. 

So  creation's  story  runs ;  so  the  tale  of  man's 
earlier  days  is  told.  We  now  measure  its  progress 
by  millenniums  rather  than  by  centuries ;  his  history 
by  centuries  rather  than  by  years.  "  The  time  is  long ; 
the  work  is  slow."  True ;  but  something  seems  to  come 
of  it  which  justifies  us  in  doubting  whether  there  is 
not  That  behind  phenomena  which  is  more  than  mere 
Force,  more  than  undirected  Energy.  This,  at  least, 
I  think,  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  earth  and 
of  man  now  warrants  us  in  asserting — that  at  every 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  93 

epoch  in  the  past,  the  present  has  been  occupied  in 
preparing  what  has  proved  to  be  a  legacy  for  the 
future.  There  fell  long  since  in  the  depths  of  oceans 
now  vanished  from  sight,  as  there  falls  still  into  like 
depths,^  one  ceaseless  shower  of  the  dead  shells  of  tiny 
organisms  which  float  like  a  living  cloud  beneath  the 
waves,  and  by  that  shower  were  built  up  the  white 
masses  of  the  chalk  which  lies  buried  deep  beneath  our 
feet,  and  forms  the  hills  to  north  and  south  of  this 
river- valley.  These  and  many  another  organism  lived 
and  died  to  sow  the  dust  of  continents  to  be.  Such  has 
been  the  law  which  has  reigned  on  this  our  earth. 
What  wonder,  then,  if  we  find  the  like  in  the  develop- 
ment of  man  ?  Take  history — take  its  facts  apart 
from  any  connection  with  religious  ideas,  and  what 
do  they  tell  us  ?  That  there  has  been  a  slow  change 
from  barbarism  to  civilization,  a  slow  growth  of  the 
moral  faculties.  If  we  disbelieve  a  revelation,  we 
cannot  deny  an  evolution  ;  if  we  believe  in  revelation, 
we  must  admit  an  increase  in  man's  capacity  for 
receiving  it. 

1  Referring  to  tlie  Foraminifera,  especially  the  genns  Glohigerina, 
which  is  as  abundant  in  parts  of  the  Atlantic  as  it  must  have  been  in 
the  waters  under  which  the  chalk  of  England  and  North- Western 
France  was  deposited.  There  has  been  some  controversy  as  to  the 
depth  at  which  it  ceases  to  live,  but  the  evidence  seems  in  favour  of 
its  habitat  being  in  a  zone  from  the  surface  down  to  a  depth  of  a  very 
few  hundred  fathoms. 


04  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

Progress,  it  is  true,  has  not  always  been  continuous. 
There  has  been  ebb  and  flow,  like  that  seen  in  the  ocean- 
waters  when  the  tide  is  rising  upon  the  beach.  If  we 
fix  our  eyes  too  exclusively  upon  any  single  epoch,  we 
might  often  deem  that  its  lesson  was  of  deterioration, 
not  of  progress ;  of  decay,  not  of  growth.  Now  and 
again  darkness  seems  closing  over  the  earth,  and  truth 
flickers  above  the  wild  waste  like  some  solitary  beacon- 
lio^ht,  which  the  winds  threaten  to  extincjuish.  Now 
the  last  days  seem  to  be  at  hand,  as  a  civilized  race 
becomes  eflete,  and  is  swept  away  by  the  inroads  of 
more  vigorous  barbarians.  The  work  of  centuries  is 
in  danger  of  being  undone  in  a  single  generation. 
The  Jew,  with  all  his  faults,  saw  spiritual  truths  more 
clearly  than  the  Chaldean,  yet  Jerusalem  goes  down 
before  the  might  of  Babylon ;  the  vast  and  highly 
organized  fabric  of  the  Roman  empire  totters  and 
falls,  even  when  it  has  been  conquered  by  the  Cross  of 
Christ,  before  the  irresistible  flood  of  barbarian  and 
heathen  invaders.  Again  and  again  the  inevitable 
rule  is  exemplified  that  all  things  alike  wax  old,  and 
in  their  turn  decay.  But  still  each  nation,  as  it 
perishes,  leaves  to  the  future  some  legacy  of  good. 
The  Greek  bequeathed  his  philosophy ;  the  Boman,  his 
system  of  law  and  his  example  of  voluntary  discipline  ; 
the  Jew,  his  spiritual   insight  and  the  all-absorbing 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  95 

intensity  of  his  faith,  for  which  he  would  even  dare  to 
die.     The  Teuton  has  set  forth  the  lesson  of  chastity. 
The  "very  perfect  knight"  of  the  Middle  Ages  has 
made  himself  a  mirror  of  chivalry.      Each,  and  all, 
in  their  turn,  have  left  to  us  the  example  of  their 
virtues,   the  warning   of   their   failures.      They  have 
laboured  and  passed  away,  and  we  have  entered  into 
their  labours.     Do  we  now  complain  that  the  time  is 
long ;  that  no  purpose  can  be  discovered  in  the  seem- 
ing confusion  of  our  life  on  earth  ?     There  is  not  an 
impatient  word  which  we  can  utter,  which  might  not 
have  been  said  a  thousand  times  over  in  the  past — 
which  probably  has  been  said ;  for  every  age  is  prone 
to   consider   itself  as  the  last   epoch  in  the  world's 
history.     That  after  it  will  come  the  deluge,  in  one 
sense  or  another  of  the  phrase,  is  the  illusion  common 
to  every  generation.     We  who  are  now  living  are  not 
exempt  from  it ;  tacitly  we  assume  that  these  are  the 
last  times.     Those  who  incline  to  optimism  boast  of 
the  triumphs  of  civilization  ;  they  bid  us  admire  this 
great  Babylon,  that  man  has  builded,  as  if  material 
progress  were  the  sole  end  of  his  existence,  and  there 
could  be  nothing  more  to   fear  than  present  ills,  to 
hope   than   present    success.      Those   who   incline   to 
pessimism  dwell  on  the  dark  side  of  the  picture — on 
the  symptoms  of  senile  decay  or  the  signs  of  coming 


96  TFIE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

storm.  These  I  would  not  undervalue.  The  present 
are  anxious  days  for  the  nations,  at  least  of  Europe, 
and  most  of  all  for  ourselves.  They  are  as  dark  and 
threatening — nay,  for  us  more  threatening — than  those 
in  the  past  century,  while  the  clouds  were  slowly 
gathering  for  the  great  and  prolonged  storm  of  revolu- 
tion and  war.  But  whatever  is  the  result  to  this  or 
that  nation,  we  may  be  sure  of  one  thing — that  the 
storm-cloud  will  at  last  roll  away,  and  the  sun  come 
forth  to  shine  ;  that  the  earth  will  once  more  be  clothed 
with  flowers,  though  it  has  been  watered  by  a  rain 
of  tears  and  blood. 

I  need  not  pursue  further  this  inquiry  into  the 
analogy  of  nature,  as  bearing  on  the  alleged  slowness 
and  seeming  want  of  purpose  in  the  order  of  the 
world.  For  the  individual,  I  admit,  we  can  discover 
little  ground  for  comfort  or  for  hope.  The  most 
cheering  message  which  Nature  can  bring  to  bear  is 
that  life  and  work  are  not  wholly  in  vain.  To  this 
aspect  of  the  case  and  to  his  position  I  purpose  to 
refer  in  my  concluding  lecture.  In  the  present  one  I 
have  endeavoured  to  indicate  that  the  broadening  and 
deepening  of  our  knowledge  during  the  last  half- 
century,  instead  of  justifying  any  impatience  and 
disbelief  from  the  apparent  slowness  of  God's  work 
of  redemption,  has  proved  it  to  be  in  accordance  with 
the  analoo^ies  which  Nature  affords. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  97 

Ephemeral  creatures  that  we  are,  we  fancy  that 
God  leaves  us  to  ourselves,  and  cares  not  to  guide  our 
steps,  because  we  do  not  reap,  so  quickly  as  we  expect, 
the  fruit  of  our  labours.  Petulant  as  children  in  our 
impatience,  we  lay  down  as  a  condition  on  which  our 
belief  is  to  depend,  that  the  Eternal  and  Omniscient 
God  should  conform  to  our  requirements  as  to  times 
and  seasons  and  results,  as  though  we,  in  our  pre- 
sumptuous ignorance,  undertook  to  regulate  the  clock 
of  time  and  the  mechanism  of  the  universe !  This,  at 
least,  is  the  lesson  taught  in  that  great  volume  which 
ever  lies  open  before  our  eyes — the  only  volume  which 
some  of  us  will  condescend  to  read — that  the  OTOwth 
of  man  to  his  present  stage  has  been  by  almost  imper- 
ceptible change,  and  has  occupied  thousands  of  years  ; 
the  preparation  of  this  earth  for  us,  its  masters,  has 
been  carried  out,  by  changes  3^et  more  imperceptible, 
through  years  more  by  a  thousandfold. 

Oh  the  pity  of  it,  when  this  tiny  creature,  man,  this 
mere  speck  in  God's  vast  universe,  arrogates  to  himself 
the  brain  of  Omniscience  and  the  throne  of  Omni- 
potence !  Oh  the  love  of  it,  when  its  Maker  thinks 
even  this  feeble  fleeting  creature  worth  lifting  up  from 
earth  to  heaven,  from  time  to  eternity ! 


H 


THE   PRESENT    CONFLICT   OF   SCIENCE 
AND  THEOLOGY  (Boyle  Lectures,  No.  Ylll.)} 

«*  Kemember  how  short  my  time  is  :    wherefore  hast  Thou 
made  all  men  in  vain  ?  " — Ps.  lxxxtx.  47. 

If  this  life  be  all ;  if  "  to  die  "  be  "  to  sleep,"  and  we 
must  not  even  add,  "perchance  to  dream" — a  con- 
clusion which,  if  restricted  to  inductions  dependent 
on  the  ordinary  processes  of  observation,  we  seem 
justified  in  adopting ;  if  after  death,  to  use  the  old 
Greek  poet's  words,  "we  sleep  a  long,  very  long, 
boundless,  wakeless  sleep  ;  "  ^ — how  should  we  most 
profitably  to  ourselves  spend  this  life  ?  This  is  a 
question  which,  in  the  present  day,  not  a  few  persons, 
who  regard  any  belief  in  revelation  as  an  illusion, 
seem  indisposed  to  face.  At  this  I  do  not  wonder ; 
for  the  question  is  an  inconvenient  one,  since  the 
answers  which  seem  most  obvious  do  not  commend 
themselves  to  the  better  sense  of  mankind. 

*  Preached  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Whitehall,  on  the  Seventh  Sunday 
after  Trinity,  1890. 

*  Ev8oiJi.es  ev  fJi.d\afx.aKphv  arepfji-ova  vrjypeTov  vTTVov.    ^oaGhvLS,  Epitaph. 
Bion.,  111. 


CONFLICT  OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY.  99 

But  it  must  be  faced,  and  on  this  subject  I  wish  to 
make  a  few  remarks  in  bringing  these  lectures  to  an 
end.  Practically,  as  I  have  been  endeavouring  to  point 
out,  I  have  found  myself  in  this  difficulty — that  Nature 
is  an  excellent  mistress  so  long  as  everything  goes 
well,  but  that  she  leaves  me  in  my  misery  as  soon 
as  anything  goes  wrong.  Another  difficulty  soon 
suggests  itself.  I  suspect  that  by  obeying  her,  that 
is,  by  ordering  my  life  in  strict  accordance  with  the 
principles  which  she  seems  to  inculcate,  my  actions 
sometimes  would  not  harmonize  with  the  ethics  of 
the  most  highly  civilized  portions  of  the  human  race. 
Grant  me  a  belief  in  a  future  life,  which  in  some  way 
will  be  influenced  by  conduct  in  this,  and  the  difficulty 
created  by  this  discordancy  disappears.  Insist  that 
on  this  subject  I  neither  know  nor  can  know  any- 
thing, except  that  any  such  expectation  is  most 
unreasonable,  and  we  ought  to  face  the  difficulty  and 
act  accordingly.  People,  I  think,  are  sometimes — it  is 
fortunate  that  they  are — a  little  inconsistent.  They 
take  their  theology  from  Nature,  and  their  morality 
from  sources  which,  if  examined,  will  be  found 
dependent  on  revelation ;  and  they  reason  as  if  both 
rested  on  the  same  foundation,  and  the  former  were  to 
be  credited  with  the  results  of  the  latter. 

In  the  preceding  lectures  I  have  indicated  that  all 


ICO  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

the   hope,  all   the   encouragement,  which   we   obtain 

from  Nature  is  for  the  race.      Her  care,  if  she  has  any, 

is  for  "  the  type,"  not  for  the  "  single  life."      Suppose 

the  lot  has  fallen  to  me  in  a  fair  ground ;  suppose  that 

I  live  to  a  good  old  age,  in  vigorous  health,  untroubled 

by  anxieties,  cares,  accidents,  sorrows  ;  that  my  career 

runs  smoothly,  peacefully,  happily,  to  its  end.     Then 

when  this  comes  I  may  say  contentedly,  I  have  had 

my  fair  share  of  pleasure,  and  it  is  time  to  go  to  sleep. 

I   am  glad  to  have  lived,  but  now  submit   without. 

murmuring  to  the  general  law,  and  over  my  tomb  you 

may  write  as  epitaph,  "  I  am  not,  and  I  grieve  not."  ^ 

But  suppose  a  different  lot  has  fallen  to  me.     Suppose 

my  days  have  been  few  and  evil ;  suppose  I  am  the 

victim  of  hereditary  disease ;    suppose  I  love  but  to 

lose ;  suppose  that,  through  no  fault  of  my  own — and 

this  is  often  the  case, — life  to  me,  though  brief,  has 

been  one  monotonous  record   of  trial  and  calamity: 

what  shall  I  say  then  ?      This  is  no  imaginary  case. 

Do  Siloam  towers  never  fall  on  the  innocent  as  well 

as  on   the   sinners  ?     When  the  Roman  empire  was 

tottering  to  its  ruin,  did  the  sword  of  Goth  or  lance  of 

»  Part  of  the  epitaph  on  the  tomb  of  the  late  Professor  W.  K.  Clifford, 
which,  if  I  remember  rightly,  runs  as  follows : — 

"  I  was  not,  and  I  was  conceived  ; 
I  lived,  and  did  a  little  work ; 
I  am  not,  and  I  grieve  not." 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY.  loi 

Hun  smite  only  the  corrupt  and  the  effete,  and  spare 
the  saints  ?  In  the  wild  revolutionary  outbreaks  of 
France — to  pass  at  once  to  modern  times — were  no 
men  or  women  of  noble  lives  murdered  after  insult, 
shame,  and  outrage,  for  the  wrong-doing  of  others — 
wrong-doing  of  which  they  were  wholly  guiltless  ?  If 
all  ended  with  the  fatal  stroke  of  sword  or  axe,  or  the 
last  pang  either  of  agonizing  disease  or  torture  devised 
by  man,  what  answer  is  to  be  given,  should  the 
victim  ask  this  question,  make  this  complaint :  "  Why 
has  this  befallen  me  ?  I  have  done  no  wrong  !  My 
birth,  my  life,  is  a  monstrous  injustice  !  "  Nature  can 
reason  with  the  fortunate,  but  she  has  no  answer  for 
the  unlucky.  It  is  not  my  business  to  find  an  answer. 
I  am  glad  of  it ;  for  I  could  not. 

Let  us  now  consider  for  a  few  moments  the  other 
difficulty  which  I  mentioned.  Would  a  scientific 
morality — as  we  might  call  one  founded  simply  on  in- 
ductive principles — agree  in  all  points  with  the  ideals 
to  which  the  most  civilized  races  have  attained,  pre- 
sumably by  the  aid  of  revelation  ?  Critics  of  Chris- 
tianity would  admit,  I  believe,  as  its  friends  would 
assert,  that  its  moral  ideal  is  the  highest  known; 
that  man  can  desire  no  more,  can  aim  at  no  more, 
than  to  live  the  life  of  the  Christ.  Such  a  life  be- 
comes  intelligible  if  we   regard  the   present  one  as 


I02  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

forming  a  part  of  a  life  much  more  extended,  as  only 
one  act  in  a  drama  ;  but  if  not,  the  self-sacrifice  which 
the  Christ-like  life  involves  cannot,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
be  reconciled  with  our  ideas  of  individual  justice.  It 
may  be  said  that  society,  and  especially  civilized 
society,  would  be  impossible  unless  individuals  were 
actuated  by  an  altruistic  spirit,  and  gave  up  their  own 
good  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellows.  Undoubtedly, 
the  principle  is  true,  but  to  what  degree  ?  with  what 
limitations?  Here  the  divergence  will  take  place. 
The  answer,  with  a  rational  man,  will  depend  on  the 
probabilities  of  the  case.  To  defend  myself,  my  family, 
even  my  state,  I  may  endure  the  hardships  of  warfare 
and  go  so  far,  under  very  exceptional  circumstances, 
as  to  sacrifice  my  life ;  counting  the  latter  as  a  piece 
of  the  ill  fortune  to  which  I  have  already  referred, 
because  in  this  case  I  can  see  a  direct  and  obvious 
benefit  as  the  result.  Indeed,  it  might  even  happen 
that,  if  I  refused  to  run  the  risk,  I  might  yet  be 
killed,  or  only  spared  to  find  that  life  had  become  not 
worth  the  living.  But  in  most  cases,  when  we  are  con- 
sidering the  vague,  shadowy,  and  extremely  uncertain 
results  which  are  associated  with  efforts  to  regenerate 
society,  where  we  are  sure  of  nothing  but  the  personal 
inconvenience,  we  might  with  good  reason  decline  to 
take  more  than  a  fair  individual  share  of  the  toil. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  103 

So  it  will  perhaps  be  said,  "  Your  only  motive  for 
altruistic  actions  is  the  hope  of  reward."  This  is  a 
possible,  though  an  unfair,  statement  of  my  position. 
Reward,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  does  not 
enter  into  the  question  at  all.  Assuming  that  this 
little  troublous  scene  with  which  we  are  most  familiar 
forms  only  a  very  small  part  of  life,  and  that  there 
is  a  God  in  Whom  justice  and  love  are  perfect,  then 
the  statement  that  I  shall  be  happier  for  trying  to  do 
my  duty  becomes  a  truism ;  it  expresses  an  unques- 
tionable and  inevitable  fact.  It  is,  so  to  say,  the 
result  of  a  law  of  Nature,  and  to  call  it,  or  think  of 
it,  as  a  reward,  is  as  much  a  confusion  in  thought 
and  words  as  to  say  that  when  I  am  inconvenienced 
by  cold  I  am  rewarded  by  approaching  a  fire. 

But  positive  as  well  as  negative  results  would 
follow  if  we  adopted  a  new  basis  for  morality.  One 
founded  on  induction  from  Nature  would  vary  con- 
siderably from  the  law  of  Christ.  Indeed,  sometimes 
the  two  systems,  if  we  may  judge  by  results,  seem  to 
come  into  collision. 

The  most  obvious  discrepancy,  as  it  appears  to  me, 
is  difficult  to  discuss,  but  we  must  not  on  that 
account  pass  over  it  in  silence.  We  may  be  bold  to 
claim  that  in  Judaism  first,  in  Christianity  afterwards, 
man  is  urged  to  war  against  the  lusts  of  the  flesh, 


104  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

more  than  in  any  other  creed  which  rests  on  a 
rational  basis.  We  may  add  that  this  teaching  has 
been  approved  by  the  verdict  of  mankind — at  least  of 
that  part  generally  admitted  to  be  the  best.  "  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart :  for  they  shall  see  God,"  is  a 
statement  which  I  believe  few  thoughtful  men,  how- 
ever they  might  explain  it,  would  desire  to  dispute. 
But  would  the  teaching  of  Nature  lead  us  to  an 
identical  result?  Certainly  not,  if  we  judge  by 
experiment,  as  witnessed  in  the  case  of  Rome,  Greece, 
and  other  heathen  nations.  But  without  pressing 
these  instances,  should  we,  on  general  principles,  come 
to  the  same  result  ?  There  are  obvious  difficulties, 
owing  to  the  nature  of  the  subject,  in  dealing  with  it 
in  public ;  so  I  content  myself  with  stating  the  con- 
clusions which  seem  to  me  to  follow,  if  we  restrict  our- 
selves to  the  teaching  of  Nature.  They  are  these  :  that 
the  body  is  likely  to  be  more  healthy  when  the  organs 
duly  perform  their  various  functions ;  that,  so  far  as  we 
can  see,  Nature  is  always  in  favour  of  temperance  in 
use  rather  than  of  total  abstinence  ;  that  chastity  then 
becomes  a  question,  not  of  general  obligation,  but  of 
individual  temperament;  and  that  a  state  of  society 
could  easily  be  imagined  so  regulated  that  vice,  as  we 
now  call  it,  would  be  compatible  with  refinement  and 
a  high  civilization. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  105 

But  further,  Christian  altruism  and  Nature  some- 
times, as  it  seems  to  me,  come  into  direct  collision,  by 
impelling  us  towards  opposite  courses  of  conduct.  The 
aim  of  Nature,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  the  apparent 
tendency  of  her  operations,  is  the  ''  survival  of  the 
fittest,"  the  development  of  the  race  to  its  highest 
standard  of  physical  excellence  (in  which  I  include 
mental  qualities)  and  to  the  most  perfect  harmony 
with  its  environment.  Christian  altruism  has  a 
different  aim,  and  tends  to  results  in  some  respect 
incompatible.  It  holds  life  to  be  a  sacred  thing,  which 
it  uses  every  effort  to  save,  sometimes  at  no  small  risk 
and  sacrifice.  ''  Protect,"  it  says,/'  the  weakling  infant, 
the  helpless  cripple,  the  consumptive,  the  scrofulous,  the 
epileptic,  the  mentally  infirm,  the  lunatic — in  a  word, 
all  Nature's  failures ;  keep  them  all  alive,  nurse  them 
tenderly,  give  them  a  larger  portion  of  time  and  skill 
and  help  than  you  bestow  on  the  others,  who,  as  you 
say,  can  take  care  of  themselves."  Noav,  what  is  the 
result  of  this  ?  That  you  raise  many  of  them  up  to 
become  fathers  and  mothers,  propagators  and  trans- 
mitters of  disease  ;  you  multiply  their  representatives 
generation  after  generation,  you  deteriorate  the  race, 
and  fill  the  world  with  maladies,  which  might  have 
been  stamped  out  at  first  by  a  little  judicious  hard- 
ness of  heart.     The  savage  who  kills  weakly  hifants, 


io6  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

and  knocks  on  the  head  the  aged  and  infirm,  is  a 
much  more  logical  disciple  of  Nature  than  the 
philosopher  who,  believing  only  in  an  Energy,  is  a 
subscriber  to  asylums  and  dispensaries,  and  busies 
himself  in  saving  lives  useless  to  the  community.  I 
do  not  reproach  him  for  his  inconsistency;  on  the 
contrary,  I  honour  him  for  it;  but  that  does  not 
alter  the  difficulty  into  which  I  feel  myself  forced. 

God  and  Nature  do  seem  to  me  here  to  be  at  strife. 
Our  efforts  for  moral  improvement  result  in  physical 
deterioration.  I  speak  of  the  race  rather  than  of 
individuals.  I  can  only  escape  from  the  difficulty 
either  by  being  logical  and  following  the  guidance  of 
Nature — in  which  case  I  must  expatriate  myself  to 
some  place,  if  it  can  be  found,  which  combines  the 
morality  of  ancient  Rome  with  the  customs  of  Fiji, 
lest  I  come  into  collision  with  the  law  of  civilized 
lands ;  or  by  adopting  the  hypothesis,  as  some  would 
call  it,  that  in  this  present  life  we  can  only  see  one 
chapter  of  a  long  and  connected  history. 

Yet  more.  Let  us  assume  that,  by  a  certain  course 
of  conduct,  a  man  becomes  a  benefactor  to  his  fellows  ; 
that  is  to  say,  he  gives  up  his  life  to  labour  for  them  ; 
to  helping  in  sorrow,  sickness,  and  calamity ;  depriv- 
ing himself  of  pleasure  for  their  sake,  and  encounter- 
ing noisome   odours,  revolting  sights,  possibly  even 


OF  SCIENCE  AND   THEOLOGY,  107 

personal  harm.  This  conduct  does  not,  of  itself,  conduce 
to  his  happiness.  I  grant,  indeed,  that  a  satisfaction 
is  felt  in  the  performance  of  what  is  called  duty,  a 
pleasurable  emotion  in  the  exercise  of  the  altruistic 
faculties;  but  I  am  sure  that,  with  the  majority 
of  mankind,  this  sensation  would  not  outweigh  the 
discomfort,  depression,  and  sadness  which  are  inevi- 
tably produced  by  the  contact  with  pain  and  suffering. 

A  logically  minded  man,  who  believed  that  this  life 
was  all,  would  be  forced,  it  seems  to  me,  to  come  to 
this  resolve :  "  I  will  take  my  fair  share  of  altruistic 
effort,  just  as  I  am  prepared  to  do  in  the  case  of  other 
social  duties;  but  it  is  too  much  to  expect  me  to 
sacrifice  myself  for  that  indeterminable  and  uncertain 
end  which  you  call '  the  benefit  of  the  race.'  Indeed, 
our  views  in  regard  to  this  matter  are  so  wanting  in 
precision,  that  I  am  not  at  all  sure  whether  these 
efforts  are  really  conducive  to  this  end,  and  whether 
it  is  not  better  to  obey  the  law  of  Nature,  and  let  the 
weaker  go  to  the  wall." 

This,  I  believe,  is  the  answer  which  most  men 
would  return.  Depend  upon  it,  the  basis  of  the 
highest  efforts  of  self-sacrifice  is  the  hope,  not  of  reward, 
but  of  immortality.  Did  we  believe  that  we  were 
day-labourers  only  on  this  earth,  a  paralysis,  slow  but 
sure,  would  creep  over  all  our  efforts  to  regenerate 


loS  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

ourselves  and  society;  our  conclusion  as  to  the  best 
rule  of  life  would  be,  ''  Let  us  eat  and  drink ;  for 
to-morrow  we  die/'  interpreting  the  maxim,  not  as  the 
sensualist,  but  as  the  philosopher. 

This,  I  believe,  would  be  the  conclusion  of  common 
sense.  It  will  be  particularly  unwelcome  to  those 
who  combine  the  exaltation  of  altruism  with  the 
negation  of  God — a  combination,  by  the  way,  which, 
so  far  as  it  has  been  experimentally  tested,  has  not 
worked  well.  The  conclusion  has  been  attacked,  but 
the  assaults  upon  it,  and  they  are  vehement,  appear  to 
me  but  so  much  smoke  and  wind — fine  phrases,  which 
will  feed  nobody.  This  epicurean  conclusion,  whether 
we  like  it  or  not,  seems  to  me  the  only  one  which  is 
justified  by  the  inductive  treatment  of  those  facts 
which  are  cognizable  by  our  bodily  senses  alone.  It 
may  even  startle  Christians;  but,  after  al],  did  not  St. 
Paul  state  almost  the  same  conclusion  in  other  words 
when  he  said,  "  If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in 
Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most  pitiable  "  ? 

I  am  prepared  to  accept  his  statement ;  nay,  I  will 
go  even  further,  and  say  that  if  Christianity  be  an 
illusion,  it  has  been  a  doubtful  gain  to  mankind.  I 
am  not  speaking  of  the  distorted  conceptions  of  it 
which  have  been  commonly  prevalent  in  the  world. 
These,  at  certain  epochs,  have  made  it  almost  a  curse. 


OF  SCIENCE   AND    THEOLOGY,  109 

But  even  if  the  doctrine  be  that  of  Christ,  I  still  doubt 
whether,  so  far  as  this  life  is  concerned,  it  has  added, 
on  the  whole,  to  our  happiness.  Gains  undoubtedly 
there  have  been,  but  are  not  these  counterbalanced  by 
the  drawbacks  ?  His  teaching  has  set  before  me  an 
ideal  which  I  feel  to  be  unattainable ;  it  has  told  me 
that  the  way  in  which  I  must  walk  is  strait  and 
narrow ;  that  it  is  found  only  by  the  few,  and  missed 
by  the  many ;  that  success,  which  alone  means  happi- 
ness, is  rare.  Hence,  according  to  the  ordinary  laAV  of 
probabilities,  I  am  more  likely  to  fail  than  succeed, 
and  so,  instead  of  being  able  to  live  my  little  day  (the 
only  one,  as  it  may  prove)  quietly  and  easily,  I  am  kept 
— to  use  a  homely  illustration — in  a  perpetual  condition 
of  strain,  worry,  and  fever,  like  one  who  is  preparing 
for  a  competitive  examination.  I  am  bidden  to  take 
up  my  cross  daily.  Yes;  but  I  do  not  like  it.  The 
weight  is  heavy,  it  bruises  and  hurts  my  flesh,  and  no 
fine  phrases  can  alter  the  fact  of  the  pain.  I  could 
have  lived  as  a  philosopher — not,  indeed,  very  happily ; 
but  if  I  should  have  hoped  nothing,  I  should  have 
feared  nothing.  This  illusion  has  spoiled  my  present 
life,  and  swindled  me  out  of  my  only  chance  of 
pleasure. 

Denounce  these  conclusions,  if  you  please,  as  coarse, 
realistic,  selfish.     I  admit  they  are,  when  regarded 


no  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

from  the  position  which  I  actually  occupy ;  but  if  you 
forbid  me  to  take  this,  because  it  rests  on  an  illusion, 
then  I  am  driven  to  the  other,  when  I  try  to  look  the 
questions  connected  with  my  life  in  the  face,  fully 
and  fairly,  as  I  am  accustomed  to  do  in  dealing  with 
difficulties  in  science.  If  you  forbid  me  to  believe  in 
a  Personal  God,  and  a  possibility  of  immortality,  then 
the  world  seems  indeed  to  be  "out  of  joint,"  and  our 
existence  to  be  a  thing  as  incomplete  as  the  design  of 
a  watch  with  the  mainspring  omitted. 

Let  me,  then,  conclude  by  briefly  recapitulating 
the  position  which  I  have  been  led  to  occupy  by 
my  method  of  study.  When  I  turn  to  the  Book  of 
Nature,  its  language  seems  to  me  to  proclaim  not  only 
the  operation  of  an  Infinite  Energy,  but  also  of  Mind 
and  Purpose,  in  the  main  beneficent;  for,  though 
individuals  ofttimes  suffer  sorely,  yet  the  general 
result  appears  to  be  in  favour  of  happiness,  and  the 
outcome  of  the  struggle  is  the  improvement  of  the 
race.  I  find  nothing  in  Nature  which  forbids  me  to 
hope  for  a  revelation,  or  compels  me  to  deny  that 
there  can  be  any  truths  other  than  those  which  may 
be  tested  by  my  bodily  senses.  I  find  much  in  man 
and  in  his  history  which  appears  inexplicable  if  I 
regard  revelation  as  an  illusion,  and  his  knowledge  of 
God  as  a  mere  cloud-palace  of  his  own  imagination. 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  iii 

If,  indeed,  I  do  so  regard  it,  then  I  am  compelled  to 
conclude  that  I  am  wearying  myself  in  vain,  that  in 
striving  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate,  I  have  not  only 
lost  many  opportunities  for  present  enjoyment,  but 
also  have  added  needlessly  to  the  anxieties  of  life. 

So  the  end  is  this :  Science  does  not  forbid  me  to 
believe ;  nay,  seems  to  go  so  far  as  to  sa}^,  "  Not  im- 
probable." History  appears  to  go  yet  further,  and  to 
say,  "  Most  probable."  While  the  witness  of  my  own 
heart  declares  that  in  Christ  it  finds  the  ideal  which 
it  needs,  the  sympathy  of  the  human,  the  perfection 
of  the  Divine,  nature. 

If  you  tell  me  that  I  may  not  believe  the  story  of 
His  life  because  it  contains  incidents  which  are  in- 
explicable by  our  present  knowledge,  and  even  con- 
trary to  our  experience,  I  reply  that  to  me  the 
world  is  full  of  miracles ;  for  it  abounds  with  things 
which  I  cannot  comprehend,  and  results  which  I 
should  not  have  expected.  Do  you  retort  that  this 
commits  me  to  belief  in  every  extravagant  tale  that 
wears  a  pietistic  dress  ?  Not  at  all.  I  claim  the 
right  of  treating  those  as  I  treat  startling  assertions 
in  science,  by  making  the  best  use  of  my  own 
judgment  and  knowledge,  and  demanding  very 
strong  evidence  for  what  seems  to  them  highly  im- 
probable.    In   so   doing   I  am   not   inconsistent,   for 


112  THE  PRESENT  CONFLICT 

every  search  for  truth  must  be  conducted  on  the  same 
principles. 

What  effect,  then,  will  be  produced  on  Christianity 
by  scientific  progress  ?  In  some  respects,  none. 
That  which  has  happened  has  happened.  If  Christ 
lived,  died,  and  rose  from  the  dead,  this  has  become 
part  and  parcel  of  the  irrevocable  past,  which  nothing 
can  alter.  What  He  said  also  belongs  to  the  province 
of  fact,  and  so  cannot  be  changed ;  but  our  understand- 
ing of  His  teaching  may  be  liable  to  modification. 
Christianity  in  the  past  has  been  well-nigh  smothered 
under  a  parasitic  growth  of  ecclesiasticism :  to  the 
root  of  this,  science  will  apply  the  axe.  It  has  been 
almost  concealed  beneath  a  superstructure  of  sacer- 
dotalism :  this  fabric  science  will  shatter.  Vain  pre- 
tensions of  ignorant  upstarts  in  priestly  garb,  to  lord 
it  over  their  better-instructed  fellows ;  vain  attempts 
to  deter  by  anathemas  from  any  honest  search  for 
truth ;  fruitless  efforts  to  petrify  in  an  elaborate 
system  of  dogma  the  living  spirit  of  Christ's  teaching, 
to  stem  the  tide  of  increasing  knowledge  and  growing 
thought :  these  science  will  destroy.  The  emancipa- 
tion of  Christianity  from  the  fetters  forged  in  ancient 
days  is  not  yet  wholly  complete.  In  this  great  work, 
when  the  present  misunderstandings  are  overpast, 
science  will  co-operate.   Thus  aided,  thus  enlightened, 


OF  SCIENCE  AND    THEOLOGY.  113 

Christianity  will  be  able  to  assume  a  position  stronger 
and  surer  than  ever  in  the  past,  and  those  who  come 
after  us  will  reap  the  fruit  of  our  present  trials  and 
labours  in  an  untroubled  assurance  of  faith,  and  a 
clearer  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God  than  has  been 
allotted  to  us  in  this  anxious  epoch  of  the  earth's 
history. 


THE   THREEFOLD   NATURE   OF   MAN.^ 

"  May  your  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  preserved  entire, 
without  blame,  at  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." — 
1  Thess.  v.  23  (R.V.)- 

In  reading  histories,  particularly  those  which  tell 

us  what   individuals  thought  and  said  rather   than 

what   nations   did,   we    cannot   forbear    occasionally 

wondering  what  would  be  the  feelings   of   some   of 

our  forefathers  could  they  return  for  a  while  to  this 

world.    How  often  they  would  find  their  vaticinations 

falsified !     Sometimes  the  event  has  shown  that  their 

Utopian  dreams  have  been  baseless;  that  the  world 

has  only  been  made  a  very  little  better  by  the  triumph 

of  a  cause  to  which  every  effort  of  their  lives  was 

devoted ;  that  the  seed  nurtured  by  a  martyr's  blood 

has  brought  forth  but  a  scanty  fruit ;  but  more  often 

that  predictions  of  evil  to  come  have  been  unfulfilled  ; 

nay,  not  seldom  that  the  measures  which  seemed  to 

them  only  pregnant  with  calamity  have  proved  among 

^  Preached  before   the    University  of  Cambridge,  in  St.   Mary's 
Churcli,  on  Sunday,  March  19, 1882. 

114 


THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  115 

the  greatest  of  national  boons.     We,  in  the  present 
age,    who   have   reached   the   period   of  middle   life, 
cannot  help  wishing  sometimes  that  this  return  might 
be  permitted  to  us.     We  have  lived  and  are  living 
through  an  epoch  of  change  and  progress  unequalled, 
perhaps,  by  any  through  which  the  world  has  passed. 
Whatever  verdict  future  generations  may  deliver  upon 
the  nineteenth  century,  they  cannot  deny  that  it  has 
been  signalized  by  an  unprecedented  progress  in  the 
mechanical    arts    and   in   scientific    knowledge;    the 
powers  of  Nature  are  being  pressed  into  our  service, 
the  secrets  of  Nature  are  being  investigated  with  a 
success  hitherto  unexampled :  what  then,  we  cannot 
but  long  to  know,  will  be  the  effect  of  these  conquests 
upon  the  world  at  large  ?  what  will  be  the  manhood 
of  the   race,  whose   adolescence  we   are  witnessing  ? 
Great,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil,  the  effect  must 
be;  for,  as  in  the  organic  world,  physical  acts  upon 
vital,  and  the  race,  at  any  rate  to  a  great  extent,  is 
the  result  of  its  environment,  so  must  it  be  also  in  the 
world  of  thought   and   belief.     We   have   lived  long 
enough  to  see  many  landmarks,  once  regarded  as  ever- 
lasting, removed ;  many  beliefs,  once  deemed  sacred, 
abandoned ;  many  illusions,  once  thought  substantial, 
dissipated:    what   changes   further,   we   cannot   help 
aeking,  are  in  store  ?     If  we  could  return  to  life  a 


ii6  THE    THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

century  hence,  should  we  find  the  old  story  of  Bethle- 
hem and  of  Calvary,  of  the  first  Easter  morn  and  the 
first  Ascension-tide,  counted  as  among  the  childish 
things,  which  the  adult  race  of  men  had  put  away, 
or  should  we  find  that  race  standing  fast  in  a  firmer 
thouo'h  manlier  faith  than  ours,  and  "the  Christ 
That  is  to  be  "  resembling  yet  more  closely  the  Christ 
Who  was  in  Palestine,  and  Who  now  is  in  the  unseen 
world  ? 

For  myself,  though  I  dare  not  say  what  the  more 
immediate  future  may  be,  or  whether  the  discipline 
of  suffering,  perplexity,  and  defeat  may  not  be  among 
the  influences  necessary  to  continue  the  evolution  of 
our  race,  I  cannot  doubt  of  the  ultimate  result.  Truth 
is  great,  and  will  prevail.  But  I  venture  to  predict 
that  religious  beliefs  are  destined,  like  our  social  re- 
lations and  scientific  opinions,  to  considerable  change, 
and  that  before  long  we  shall  see  a  process  in  the 
former  similar  in  kind  to  that  which  we  are  witness- 
ing in  the  latter.  Still,  as  in  the  natural  world,  so 
in  that  domain  which  for  want  of  a  better  term  we 
call  the  moral  and  the  spiritual,  I  believe  that  the 
ultimate  result  will  be  one  of  development,  not  of 
discontinuity;  that  there  is  in  religious  beliefs  a 
process  of  evolution  analogous  to  that  which  there 
is  (though  here  also  it  may  be  within  limits)  in  the 


THE    THREEFOLD   NATURE   OF  MAN.  117 

organic  world.  So  that  (to  take  tlie  old  simile)  how- 
ever the  superstructure  of  the  Church  may  change,  it 
will  be  built  still  on  the  same  rock — Christ  crucified 
and  Christ  risen. 

I  venture  also  to  think — and  it  is  this  idea  which 
I  wish  to  bring  more  especially  before  you  on  the 
present  occasion,  though  in  so  short  a  time  I  can  only 
indicate  one  or  two  aspects  of  it — that  some  of  the 
more  immediate  influences  in  what  I  may  term  the 
evolution  of  religious  opinions  are  to  come  from  a  side 
commonly  supposed  hostile  to  all  theology,  namely, 
from  science ;  and  I  believe  that  we  should  gain  by 
introducing  into  the  former  more  of  the  method  (with 
the  necessary  modifications)  which  is  habitual  in  the 
latter.  Is  the  fact  that  the  Eastern  Magi  were  among 
the  earliest  to  visit,  and  the  first  to  bring  gifts  to,  the 
newly  born  Christ  never  to  be  among  the  "things 
which  are  an  allegory  "  ?  Certainly  the  guardians  of 
His  Church  have  hitherto  not  shown  much  favour 
to  what  they  term  "  unsanctified  learning,"  and  I  doubt 
that  not  a  few  of  them  would  have  resolutely  held  the 
door  against  the  pilgrim  strangers,  notwithstanding 
their  gold,  until  some  satisfactory  test  of  orthodoxy 
had  been  duly  subscribed.  To  the  elucidation  of  the 
great  problem — the  nature  and  the  destiny  of  man — 
every  department  of  study  can  bring  its  contribution. 


ii8  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN, 

The  various  sciences  are  capable  of  being  helpful  to 
Theology,  not,  indeed,  ministering  to  her  with  hand  on 
mouth,  like  servants  before  an  imperious  mistress — a 
view,  I  may  remark,  not  seldom  favoured  by  ecclesi- 
astics— but  as  fellow-labourers  in  a  great  cause,  whose 
provinces,  indeed,  are  distinct,  yet  who  nevertheless 
are  capable  of  rendering  much  help  one  to  another. 

To  prevent  misconception,  to  which  I  know  from  ex- 
perience one  is  always  liable,  I  shall  venture  to  indicate 
a  little  more  fully  the  general  nature  of  the  changes 
which,  as  it  seems  to  me,  we  may  expect.  The 
Christian  creed  (to  use  a  popular  term)  consists  partly 
of  historical  statements — a  record  of  what  are  held  to 
be  facts — the  doings  and  sayings  of  certain  persons, 
especially  of  One,  Who  is,  of  course,  Christ  Jesus ; 
partly  of  the  interpretations  which  men  have  put  upon 
these  deeds  and  words.  Now,  the  former  obviously  can 
only  be  altered  by  the  removal  of  misstatements  on 
points  of  detail.  An  historical  narrative  (subject  to 
such  correction)  is  either  true  or  false.  The  basis  of 
Christianity  is  the  life  and  teaching  of  Christ,  recorded 
in  the  Books  of  the  New  Testament.  To  regard  this 
as  legend  in  which  there  may  be  some  substratum  of 
fact,  is  for  all  practical  purposes,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to 
reject  it.  We  may  admit  the  possibility  of  inaccuracy 
in  isolated  and  unimportant  details,  as  we  are  in  the 


THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  119 

habit  of  doing  in  all  matters  of  history  ;  but  after  due 
allowance  made  for  this,  and  for  the  idiosyncrasies  of 
the  recorders,  we  must  either  reject  the  Gospel  story 
of  Christ  Jesus,  or  must  accept  it  as  we  now  do  and 
as  the  world,  I  believe,  will  continue  to  accept  it. 
But  a  considerable  part  of  the  creed  of  most  Christians 
— the  major  part,  I  fancy,  with  many  and  the  most 
prominent  part  in  theology,  as  the  term  is  commonly 
understood — consists  of  inferences  more  or  less  elabo- 
rately constructed  from  the  words  and  deeds  of  the 
historical  Christ.  From  the  conclusions  of  Councils, 
and  sometimes  from  the  efforts  of  individual  thinkers, 
has  originated  Christian  dogma  as  distinguished  from 
Christian  doctrine.  Now,  many  earnest  Christians 
appear  to  regard  the  former  as  something  almost 
Divine — nay,  some  are  ready  to  say  in  all  sincerity,  of 
their  own  particular  opinions,  "  This  is  the  Catholic 
faith,  which  except  a  man  believe  faithfully,  he  cannot 
be  saved."  To  deny,  indeed,  that  in  the  "  process  of 
the  suns  "  there  is  accretion  to  the  sum  of  our  know- 
ledge, to  deny  that  there  is  a  development  in  belief  as  in 
everything  connected  with  vitality,  would  be  contrary 
to  all  analogy ;  but  the  important  question  is — How  is 
our  knowledge  to  be  increased  ?  Is  theology  to  grow 
by  processes  of  creation  or  by  processes  of  evolution ; 
by  direct  revelation  through  the  instrumentality  of 


I20  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

Councils  of  the  Church  or  some  other  definite  channel 
of  inspiration  (using  the  word  in  the  popular,  limited 
sense),  or,  as  all  other  knowledge  grows,  by  successive 
approximation — development  now  on  this  side,  now 
on  that — by  the  correction  of  over-hasty  guesses  and 
erroneous  conjectures,  and  by  the  frank  admission  that, 
after  certain  first  principles  are  determined,  a  very 
large  field  must  be  regarded  as  open  to  inquir}^  and  to 
debate  ?  This  is  what  I  mean  by  the  application  of 
scientific  methods  and  a  scientific  spirit  to  theology. 
When  we  attempt  this  reformation,  two  principles  will 
have  to  be  boldly  admitted ;  one,  that  the  defenders 
of  the  Faith  in  the  past  (as  probably  ourselves  in  the 
present)  have  often  made,  even  with  the  best  intentions, 
most  unfortunate  mistakes,  so  as  to  be  numbered  justly 
among  the  opponents  to  the  real  progress  and  ameliora- 
tion of  the  world  ;  the  other,  that  we  cannot  hope  fully 
to  grasp  the  mysteries  of  God's  working,  that  our 
Avords  and  conceptions  and  methods  of  thought  are  all 
founded  on  the  finite,  and  are  only  capable  of  dealing 
completely  (if  they  do  that)  with  the  finite,  so  that  we 
can  but  approximate  to,  not  perfectly  understand, 
those  mysteries  which  lie  beyond  the  veil.  Hence 
we  must  be  content  sometimes  not  only  to  "believe 
where  we  cannot  prove,"  but  also  to  admit  that  there 
may  be  many  rays  of  the  Divine  efiulgence  which  have 


THE    THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  121 

not  yet  illuminated  our  own  particular  mental  horizon. 
Christians  therefore  in  general,  and  the  clergy  in  par- 
ticular, must  abandon  that  tone  of  arrogant  dogmatism, 
and  those  vituperative  habits  which  have  too  often 
characterized  and,  judging  from  the  so-called  religious 
newspapers,  still  too  often  characterize  them,  and  must 
be  content  to  admit  the  possibility  of  much  divergence 
of  opinion  with  regard  to  many  points  which  are  dis- 
tinctive of  Churches  rather  than  of  Christians.  Perhaps 
a  day  may  come  when  not  a  few  so-called  defenders  of 
the  faith  may  be  regarded  as  among  its  real  enemies, 
and  charity  be  restored  to  its  place  as  the  crowning- 
Christian  virtue. 

On  a  former  occasion  ^  I  laid  before  this  cono-reo-ation 
some  thoughts  relating  to  a  scientific  hypothesis,  con- 
cerning the  genesis  of  plants  and  animals,  and  possibly 
of  the  human  race,  which  is  rapidly  growing  in  favour 
among  those  most  competent  to  form  an  opinion,  and  I 
endeavoured  to  show  that,  although  this  hypothesis 
would  conflict  with  opinions  commonly  held,  it  touched 
no  cardinal  doctrine  of  Christianity,  and  left  unex- 
plained (as  we  should  expect  from  the  nature  of  the 
case)  those  mysteries  which  belong  to  the  province 
of  revelation.      I   purpose  now  to  glance  briefly  at 

^  The  sermons  are  printed  in  a  volume  entitled  Sermons  on  some 
Questions  of  the  Day. 


122  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

what  appears  to  me  a  Scripture  theory  of  the  nature 
of  man,  since  it  may,  I  think,  help  us  in  many  of  the 
difficulties  which  are  beginning  to  present  themselves 
to  thoughtful  persons.  In  so  doing,  I  ask  that  we 
should  as  far  as  possible  free  ourselves  from  precon- 
ceived ideas  in  matters  of  interpretation.  I  mean 
that,  while  assuming  the  author  of  a  particular  Book 
of  the  New  Testament  to  have  the  power  of  telling  us 
something  which  neither  we  nor  indeed  he,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  could  have  found  out  for  our- 
selves, we  should  treat  his  words  exactly  as  we  should 
do  those  of  any  other  author,  and  try  to  make  out 
(without  being  fettered  by  previous  interpretations, 
however  venerable)  what  meaning  appears  most 
natural  to  them. 

The  question,  then,  often  suggests  itself — What  is  the 
nature  of  man  ?  Does  he  differ,  and  if  so,  how  does  he 
differ,  from  the  rest  of  the  animal  kingdom  ?  As  our 
knowledge  stands  at  present,  a  marked  distinction 
seems  to  exist  (notwithstanding  some  cases  of  apparent 
difficulty)  between  the  inorganic  and  the  organic 
world ;  it  is  much  more  dubious  whether  we  can 
establish  one  between  the  vegetable  and  the  animal. 
In  both  the  latter,  however,  there  is  a  common  presence 
of  organisms  influenced  by  that  mystery  (call  it  force 
or  what  you  will — the  term  will  only  be  a  cloak  for 


THE    THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  123 

ignorance)  to  which  we  give  the  name  of  life.  Wherein, 
then,  does  man  differ  from  one  of  the  more  highly 
organized  animals  ?  Regarded  from  the  standpoint  of 
science,  we  must,  I  think,  admit  that  he  differs  only  in 
degree,  not  in  kind ;  for  I  suppose  that  no  one  now 
would  attempt  to  maintain  that  animals  possess  only 
instinct,  and  not  reason.  As  the  structure  and  capa- 
cities of  the  future  plant  or  animal  are  potentially 
present  in  its  germ,  so  the  intellectual  powers  of  man 
may  be  seen  nascent  in  members  of  the  animal  world. 
If,  then  (regarded  solely  from  this  standpoint),  they 
are  not  immortal,  neither  is  he;  if  he  is,  so  are 
they.  For  myself,  looking  thus  at  the  matter,  I  can 
see  no  other  conclusion  possible.  If  we  would  con- 
struct a  complete  psychology,  we  cannot  obtain  and 
we  should  not  expect  to  obtain  the  information  from 
science,  however  successful  it  may  be  in  furnishing  us 
with  tests  and  illustrations.  We  cannot  prove  the 
existence  of  a  soul  by  experiment,  or  even  infer  it  by 
logical  processes  from  observation.  We  must  look  for 
our  information  to  another  quarter.  Revelation  tells 
us  that  man  is,  or  at  any  rate  can  be,  something  more 
than  an  animal,  in  the  possession  of  a  soul.  This  word, 
however,  it  is  almost  needless  to  remark,  has  been  used 
with  so  much  vagueness,  that  beyond  the  mere  asser- 
tion of  an  immortality  at  any  rate  possible — doubtless 


124  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

a  great  point — it  conveys  to  us  little  significance. 
But  we  may,  I  think,  find  in  Scripture,  especially  in 
the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  a  far  clearer  statement  than 
this  word  conveys — one  which,  carefully  considered, 
will  explain  many  perplexities  in  our  complicated 
nature.  He  asserts  almost  explicitly,  the  existence  in 
man  of  a  tripartite  nature.  Body  (awfia),  life  ^vxv), 
and  spirit  (Trvtv^a).  The  word  "  soul,"  which  I  shall 
endeavour  to  avoid,  is  employed  sometimes  as  equiva- 
lent to  the  third ;  sometimes  (for  instance,  in  my  text) 
as  a  translation  of  the  second ;  and  sometimes  loosely 
for  both  combined,  or  perhaps  all  three.  For  the  first 
term,  especially  when  its  animal  and  more  ignoble 
nature  is  insisted  on,  the  word  aap^  ("  flesh  ")  is  often 
substituted.  This  is  the  obviously  perishable  part; 
but  (TtofjLa  is  possessed  by  the  most  etherealized  natures. 
There  are  aiLixara  tirovpavia  ("  bodies  celestial").  Indeed, 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  personality,  except  as 
God,  apart  from  crw/.ta.  If  there  be  an  ego — I  speak 
as  a  man — there  must  be  a  limitation,  a  difference 
between  the  within  and  the  without,  the  consciousness 
of  which  constitutes  personality,  and  renders  the 
former  the  (xw/xa  of  that  which  is  conscious.  In  this 
way  only  can  I  differentiate  on  the  one  hand  between 
a  mere  force  and  life,  and  on  the  other  between  life,  as 
exhibited  in  the  world,  and  God.     Thus,  even  as  for 


THE    THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  125 

life  there  must  be  a  material  basis,  thouc>;h  that  in 
itself  does  not  constitute  life,  so  for  spirit,  if  it  is  to  be 
individualized  and  exhibited  in  a  mode  in  which  it  can 
be  apprehended  by  our  consciousness,  there  must  also 
be  a  material  basis  of  some  kind.  Perhaps  to  some 
this  may  appear  downright  materialism;  on  second 
thoughts  it  will  be  seen  to  be  a  mere  truism  that  a 
conscious  unit  is  no  more  conceivable  by  us,  apart 
from  a  material  basis  of  some  kind,  than  is  light,  or 
heat,  or  electricity^,  or  any  one  of  what  we  call  the 
forces  of  Nature.  I  fully  admit  the  possibility  of  the 
existence  of  spirit  not  so  limited,  but  that  belongs  to 
an  order  of  things,  strictly  speaking,  beyond  the  con- 
ceptions of  finite  beings. 

The  union  of  life  (which  implies  some  kind  of  con- 
sciousness) with  body  makes  up  the  animal  (probably 
also  the  plant)  ;  the  unity  of  consciousness  constitutes 
the  individual.  There  is  a  continuity  of  consciousness 
in  the  individual,  there  is  also  a  certain  continuity  in 
the  race  ;  but  in  the  latter — and  this  is  true  in  every 
variation  of  it  which  may  be  evolved  under  the  in- 
fluence of  changing  environments  from  age  to  age — 
there  is  also  a  certain  discontinuity  due  to  the  begin- 
ning of  a  separate  consciousness  for  each  individual. 
This  obviously  occurs  whenever  there  are  three  indi- 
viduals in  the  world  where  a  short  time  before  there 


126  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

were  but  two.  In  connection  with  this  subject,  I  may- 
add  the  remark,  that  we  observe  in  Nature  instances 
where  an  individual,  a  variety,  or  a  species,  apparently 
from  failing  in  some  way  or  other  to  comply  with  the 
conditions  of  its  environment,  becomes  extinct.  A 
branch  on  the  tree  of  life,  not  always  with  premonitory 
withering,  sometimes  after  exuberant  efflorescence, 
comes  to  an  abrupt  stop;  and  thus  so  far  as  it  is 
concerned,  another  discontinuity  is  introduced.  In 
the  history  of  life  we  seem  to  be  led  by  insensible 
gradations  from  the  simplest  cell  to  the  most  highly 
organized  animals,  and  I  do  not  see  that  from  the  side 
of  natural  science  we  can  argue  for  anything  more. 
Of  whatever  perfection  of  bodily  structure,  of  whatever 
perfection  of  reasoning  powers,  the  animal  has  been  or 
even  may  yet  be  capable,  there  remains,  it  seems  to 
me,  but  one  end — at  last  the  limbs  drop  nerveless 
down,  at  last  the  busy  brain  is  still ;  and  what  then  ? 
Dissipation  of  the  constituent  atoms ;  return  of  the 
localized  force  to  the  totality  of  the  world's  energy  ? 
Perhaps.  Continued  existence  under  greatly  modified 
conditions  ?  Hardly  likely.  Nothingness  ?  Most 
probably. 

But  on  the  darkness  of  that  bourne,  whither  sooner 
or  later  our  steps  must  tend,  revelation  sheds  a  ray  of 
light.     It  tells  us  of  another  element  in  our  nature — a 


THE    THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  127 

gift  to  man  and  to  man  alone — the  spirit,  the  breath 
of  God ;  for  only  by  some  such  symbolical  phrase  can 
we  appreciate  what  it  is.     This  is  the  key-note  struck 
in  that  story  of  its  first  beginning  which  was  told 
to  the  race  in  its  childhood,  when  man  is  said  to  have 
become  a  living  soul ;  this  is  unfolded  more  clearly  in 
another  greater  revelation,  when  it  was  declared  to  the 
astonished  doctor  in  Israel  "  that  which  is  born  of  the 
flesh  is  flesh,  and  that  which  is  born  of  the  spirit  is 
spirit ; "  and  this  tripartite  nature — this  ^trinity,  if  I 
may  be   permitted   the   term — in   man   is   yet   more 
distinctly  described   in   the   psychology  of  St.  Paul, 
What  the  spirit  is  we  cannot  attempt  to  define.     We 
talk  glibly  of  spirit,  but  we  attach  only  little  definite 
meaning  to  the  foreign  term.     Perhaps  to  the  early 
Christian,  to  whom  the  word  was  associated  with  the 
movement  of  the  passing  air — mysterious  in  that  he 
knew  not  whence  it  came  and  whither  it  went,  con- 
nected with  all  that  was  instinct  with  health  and  life 
— the  term  had  a  suggestiveness  which,  to  us,  it  has 
almost  lost.     Still,  though  we  can  no  more  define  it 
than  life,  though  we  can  far  less  completely  and  surely 
indicate  its  phenomena,  it  may  be  very  real,  very  true, 
a  matter  of  the  most  assured  belief.     By  this  it  is  that 
we  are  made  sons  of  God  and  heirs  of  immortality. 
No  passage,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  digress  a  little, 


128  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

brings  this  out  more  clearly  than  the  well-known 
seventh  chapter  in  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 
You  know  how  difficult  this  is  to  understand ;  but  to 
myself,  at  any  rate,  it  has  been  greatly  simplified  by 
being  looked  at  in  this  light.  The  argument  seems 
to  run  thus :  Man,  regarded  simply  as  an  animal,  a 
combination  of  body  and  life,  a  living  organism,  is 
subject  naturally  to  a  number  of  impulses  and  desires. 
These  are  not  in  themselves  sinful ;  they  are  common 
to  him  with  the  rest  of  the  animal  world,  and  must  be 
judged  by  the  same  standard.  But  the  Law,  embodied 
most  completely  in  the  Mosaic  dispensation  (a 
preparation,  viewed  in  its  effect  on  the  race,  for  this 
new  birth  in  Christ)  made  many  of  these  sin  by 
saying,  "  Thou  shalt  not."  What  is  not  directly  or 
implicitly  forbidden  cannot  be  considered  wrong.  Sin 
is  the  transgression  of  the  Law.  The  Law,  however, 
being  merely  negative,  had  no  power  of  quickening ; 
it  could  only  condemn.  Its  sentence  was,  "  In  thus 
doing  as  the  animals,  thou  dost  not  fulfil  thy  destiny  ; 
thy  end  therefore  is  death  like  unto  theirs."  As  the 
Apostle  says,  "  I  was  alive  without  the  Law  once,  but 
when  the  commandment  came,  sin  became  quick  "  (the 
translation  "  revived  "  appears  to  me  liable  to  mislead, 
for  the  Apostle  clearly  does  not  contemplate  a  prior 
existence  of  sin   in   his  own  person),  "and  I  died." 


THE    THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  129 

Thus  even  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  does  not  deliver  man 
from  conflict.  There  is  still  the  flesh,  the  animal 
nature,  which  ever  tends  one  way,  which,  although  it 
may  be  subjected  to  the  spirit,  is  not  changed  by  the 
spirit,  and  is  literally,  even  to  the  end,  a  "  body  of 
death ; "  but  there  is  also  the  spirit,  no  longer  appeal- 
ing only  to  the  prohibitions  of  the  Law,  but  ever 
pointing  onwards  and  upwards  to  its  Parent  in 
heaven,  ever  directing  the  weary  to  the  Cross  of 
Calvary  and  the  risen  Saviour. 

Revealed  truth  thus  takes  a  middle  ground  between 
two  erroneous  extremes — an  optimist  pantheism  and  a 
Manichean  dualism.  Sin  is  the  following  of  the  lower 
instead  of  the  hiofher  nature,  is  electing  to  be  an 
animal  rather  than  a  man.  As  the  misuse  of  the 
vital  powers  results  in  a  practical  suicide,  in  the 
destruction  of  the  living  organism,  so  the  neglect  of 
the  spiritual  powers,  the  "living  after  the  flesh," 
results  in  the  death  of  the  more  perfected  individual. 
The  analogy  between  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  life 
seems  to  hold  in  all  respects.  Each  is  in  its  beginning- 
inexplicable,  we  may  rightly  say  miraculous ;  each  is 
mysterious,  incapable  of  exact  definition ;  each  has  a 
beginning;  but  who  can  say  in  either  case  at  what 
moment  the  vital  principle  is  individualized  ?  In  each, 
too,  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  operates ; 
K 


130  THE    THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

and  who  can  define  the  precise  mode  and  the  precise 
moment  of  death  ?  Thus,  as  in  all  the  variety  of 
matter  there  seems  to  be  an  underlying  unity  of 
substance,  as  in  all  the  variety  of  organism  there 
seems  a  unity  of  vital  force,  so  in  all  creation,  from 
the  lowest  which  we  can  behold  to  the  highest  which 
we  can  conceive,  there  is  a  unity  through  Him  in 
Whom  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  words  we,  yet  more 
fully  than  other  creatures,  ''  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being." 

This  view  of  the  nature  of  man  seems  to  me  to 
have  an  important  bearing  on  one  or  two  questions 
which  are  of  no  little  importance,  though  perhaps 
their  full  gravity  is  not  yet  appreciated. 

If  scientific  inquiry  should  result  in  establishing 
as  a  fact  the  descent  of  man  by  processes  of  evolution 
from  some  members  of  what  is  commonly  called  the 
animal  kingdom,  we  may  view  this  result  with  calm- 
ness, because  we  can  claim  for  him  the  possession  of  a 
gift  which  they  had  not  received.  As  the  Christian 
believes  that  in  Christ  Jesus  the  perfect  manhood  was 
united  to  the  Godhead  in  a  Person  Who,  to  the  sons  of 
men,  seemed  but  as  one  of  themselves,  so  in  his  own 
case  the  perfect  animal  has  been  united  to  the  Spirit 
of  God.  If,  then,  we  shrink  from  a  conclusion  to  which 
a  rigid  theology  would  force  us  as  to  the  fate  of  the 


THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  131 

myriads  of  human  beings  who  lived  their  little  day  in 
the  countless  centuries  of  the  unrecorded  past,  or  if 
we  find  the  phrase,  "left  to  God's  uncovenanted 
mercies,"  unsatisfyingly  vague,  we  may  answer,  taking 
such  a  view  of  human  nature  as  we  have  indicated, 
that  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  they  had 
yet  been  quickened  by  the  Spirit.  Or  again,  if  another 
chain  of  reasoning  drives  us  to  conclusions  as  to 
the  future  of  many  in  later  times,  which  to  us  seem 
hard  to  reconcile  with  the  idea  of  a  God  of  love  as 
revealed  in  the  Bible,  we  are  allowed,  in  that  case,  to 
ask  whether  this  union  of  Spirit  with  living  organism 
can  never  be  broken,  and  are  bidden  to  search  the 
Scriptures  to  see  what  they  really  declare  on  this 
point.  Perhaps  we  may  find  that  their  words,  under- 
stood in  their  natural  sense,  though  they  most  clearly 
declare  that  sin  shall  never  go  unpunished,  do  not 
necessarily  establish  a  doctrine  commonly  held,  and 
that  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  warrant  us  in 
interpreting  death  to  mean  eternal,  but  agonized,  life. 

On  another  question  also  such  a  view  of  Nature 
as  I  have  indicated  will,  I  think,  be  found  helpful ; 
namely,  as  to  the  due  relation  of  the  several  members 
of  this  tripartite  nature.  To  bring  the  body  into 
subjection,  to  conquer  the  lower  self,  is,  I  think, 
that  part  of  morality,  whether  Christian  or  not,  which 


132  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN. 

is  of  origin  truly  Divine ;  for  I  believe  that  a  morality 
strictly  psychic,  not  spiritual  in  origin,  would  allow 
whatever  could   be   shown   to   be   conducive   to  the 
health    of  the    individual,    so   long   as   this   did   not 
conflict  with  the  general  well-being  of  the  community. 
Spiritual  religion  declares  that  there  are  some  animal 
impulses  which  must  at  all  cost  be  subdued.     But  in 
so  doing  it  does  not  favour  the  Manichean  view,  which 
some   seem    to    have    adopted,   that    every    natural 
appetite  is  of  itself  sinful.     The  body  has  its  rights  as 
well  as  the  spirit ;  it  is  the  spirit's  home,  and  I  think 
we   are  justified  in  inferring  that  it  is  our  duty  to 
keep  that  home  in  the  best  repair  possible.     However 
we  may  admire  the  fixity  of  purpose  and  endurance 
of  those  men  who  lived  the  life  of  fakeers  to  conquer 
their  lower  natures,  we  must  admit   that  they  com- 
mitted suicide,  however  unconscious  of  it  they  might 
be.    They  too  often  destroyed  the  better  as  well  as  the 
worse  side  of  themselves ;  they  suffered  from  stunted 
sympathies,  warped  affections,  unbalanced  judgments, 
and  many  forms  of  mental  disturbance,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  mischief  which  they  did  by  setting  before  their 
fellow-men  standards  of  conduct  which  were  impracti- 
cable  and   erroneous.      Special   forms   of  self-denial, 
special  acts  of  self-sacrifice,  may  be  the  duty  of  this 
or  that  individual,  exactly  as  in  the  ordinary  relations 


THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE   OF  MAN.  133 

of  life  we  may  have  to  imperil  and  even  to  sacrifice 
it  on  some  exceptional  emergency.  But  the  aim  of 
the  Christian  should  be  simply  to  do  his  duty,  that  is, 
as  I  understand  it,  to  accept  the  order  of  things  into 
which  he  is  born,  and  to  make  the  very  best  he  can  of 
them  as  regards  himself  and  as  regards  others. 

We  are  living,  as  I  have  said,  in  times  of  change. 
No  man  dare  predict  what  may  await  himself,  still 
less  what  trials  may  lie  before  the  younger  among  his 
hearers.  As  in  each  man's  history  there  are  periods 
of  special  anxiety,  either  from  trials  without  or  trials 
within,  from  adverse  circumstances  or  from  the 
rebellion  of  his  lower  nature,  so  is  it  at  present  with 
our  own  nation,  I  may  say  with  the  civilized  world. 
Of  the  ultimate  outcome  I  have  no  doubt ;  truth  will 
triumph  in  the  future  as  it  has  triumphed  in  the  past ; 
but  I  confess  to  melancholy  forebodings  when  I  see 
the  powers  of  evil  gathering  for  the  conflict,  and  the 
religion,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  of  the  carnal  man  once 
more  attempting  to  replace  the  revelation  of  God, 
while  the  clergy,  nay,  earnest  Christians  in  general, 
are  too  often  occupied  in  reviving  doctrines  which  are 
of  dubious  validity,  and  in  claiming  an  authority 
which  experience  has  shown  that  they  do  not  possess. 
Still,  these  things  may  be  but  as  the  darkness  that 
heralds   the   dawn ;    this   dimness    but   that   of    the 


134  THE   THREEFOLD  NATURE  OF  MAN. 

morning  mists  which  distort  and  magnify  every 
obstacle ;  through  the  breaks  in  these  it  is  even  now 
possible  to  discern  the  amber  light  beginning  to  glow 
in  the  eastern  sky.  Meanwhile  it  is  our  duty  to  labour 
on  in  patience  and  in  trust,  in  the  hope  of  doing,  ere 
we  die,  some  little  for  Christ,  some  little  to  render  the 
world  wiser  and  better  than  we  found  it.  Our  task 
may  seem  but  humble,  our  lot  in  life  but  lowly,  our 
contribution  to  the  rock  on  which  future  generations 
shall  build  may  seem  but  as  the  tiny  cell  which  each 
single  polyp  adds  to  the  great  coral  reef ;  we  may  find 
ourselves  misunderstood,  misrepresented,  even  dis- 
liked ;  but  if  we  have  brought  some  few,  be  they  only 
children  or  humble  folk,  nearer  to  their  Father  in 
heaven ;  if  we  have  shown  some  young  men  or  women 
that  the  Christ  Who  cries,  "  Conquer  thy  lower  nature 
and  come  unto  Me,"  is  worthier  of  love  than  the  dis- 
torted image  which  his  own  mind  or  that  of  his  earlier 
teachers  has  unwittingly  fashioned;  then  while  our 
epitaph  may  be,  "  I  was  not,  and  I  was  conceived ;  I 
lived,  and  did  a  little  work,"  we  may  claim  for  it  a 
brighter  ending :  "  I  am  not,  and  yet  I  am ;  I  grieve 
not,  for  I  rejoice." 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE  (No.  I.).' 

**  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profit- 
able for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in 
righteousness." — 2  Tim.  m.  16. 

Inspiration — the  inspiration  of  the  Bible.  How 
often  is  this  word,  this  phrase,  used  in  sermons,  in 
arguments,  in  controversies  !  yet  how  perplexed  many 
of  us  would  be  if  called  upon  to  give  them  a  meaning  ! 
This  is  not  without  excuse,  because  it  is  always  diffi- 
cult to  formulate  satisfactorily  our  conceptions  of 
things  and  relationships  which  transcend  our  powers. 
A  general  idea  is  present  in  our  minds  with  sufficient 
distinctness  to  be  a  principle  of  action,  yet  it  eludes 
exact  definition,  and  refuses  to  be  fettered  by  rigid 
statements. 

But,  granting  the  difficulty,  it  is  unfortunate  that 
many  persons  make  no  effort  in  this  direction,  and  are 
content  to  use,  in  matters  of  the  gravest  moment, 
words,  the  meaning  of  which  they  do  not  attempt  to 
ascertain. 

1  Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  Septuagesima  Sunday,  1889. 

135 


136  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

At  the  present  day  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  make  this  effort.  What  inspiration  means,  what 
the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  implies,  has  a  bearing  on 
most  of  the  controversies  of  the  day;  and  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  many  a  man,  owing  to  miscon- 
ceptions about  these  points,  has  been  led  to  consider 
Christianity  incredible,  and  to  adopt  as  his  creed,  if  we 
may  so  call  it,  the  maxim,  "  We  know  not  anything." 

Many  people  seem  to  imagine  that  the  Church  of 
England — for  with  the  practice  or  formularies  of  other 
Churches  I  am  not  concerned — has  approved  a  par- 
ticular theory  of  inspiration,  and  by  it  is  committed 
to  stand  or  to  fall.  This  is  assumed,  tacitly  rather 
than  explicitly,  in  most  of  the  attacks  to  which,  at  the 
present  day,  Christianity  is  exposed.  The  assailant 
puts  to  us  this  dilemma :  "  You  appeal  to  the  Bible  as 
an  inspired  book.  Here  is  a  mistake  in  history  or  in 
science.  Either  deny  facts  or  repudiate  your  autho- 
rity." A  formidable  alternative.  But  is  this  really 
the  only  choice  which  remains  to  us  ? 

Where  is  this  definition  of  inspiration  to  be  found  ? 
We  search  the  authoritative  statements  of  our  Church, 
and  we  search  them  in  vain.  The  Church  of  England, 
while  assuming  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  inspira- 
tion, while  using  phrases  in  regard  to  it  which  enable 
any  moderately  thoughtful  person  to  obtain  a  general 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  I37 

idea  of  her  mind  (if  the  phrase  be  permissible)  on  this 
point — an  idea  sufficient  for  all  ordinary  purposes — 
never  commits  herself  to  a  precise  and  rigid  definition. 
Look  at  the  Sixth  Article,  where  we  should  naturally 
expect  to  find  it,  and  where  we  have  the  nearest 
approach.  It  runs  thus  :  "  Holy  Scripture  containeth 
all  things  necessary  to  salvation  :  so  that  whatsoever 
is  not  read  therein,  nor  may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not 
to  be  required  of  any  man,  that  it  should  be  believed 
as  an  article  of  the  Faith,  or  be  thought  requisite  or 
necessary  to  salvation."  The  Article  then  enumerates 
the  books  included  in  the  canon  of  Scripture,  and 
those  which  are  only  read  "  for  example  of  life  and 
instruction  of  manners,"  but  not  applied  "  to  establish 
any  doctrine." 

This  cautious,  guarded  language  stands  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  rash  statements  of  many  would-be 
"  defenders  of  the  faith ; "  so  unpalatable,  indeed,  is  it, 
that  by  many  it  has  been  quietly  ignored,  by  some 
an  effort  to  alter  it  has  been  made.  The  last  of  these 
attempts,  a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  was  due  to  persons 
who,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  ought  to  have 
known  better.^  Fortunately,  it  had  no  other  result 
than  that  many  men  signed  a  document  in  haste  of 

^  The  reference  is  to  the  so-called  Oxford  Declaration,  circulated  for 
signature  in  the  year  1864. 


138  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

which  I  think  not  a  few  must  afterwards  have  repented 
at  leisure. 

Let  me  quote  a  very  extreme  view  of  the  inspira- 
tion of  Scripture,  and  we  shall  see  the  dilemma  in 
which  it  would  place  us.  "  The  Bible  is  none  other 
than  the  Voice  of  Him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne. 
Every  book  of  it,  every  chapter  of  it,  every  verse  of  it, 
every  word  of  it,  every  syllable  of  it  (where  are  we  to 
stop  ?),  every  letter  of  it,  is  the  direct  utterance  of  the 
Most  High."^  Obviously,  the  author  must  be  speaking 
of  an  ideal  Bible  and  an  ideal  translation,  for  that 
doubts  exist  as  to  the  exact  text  in  the  original  docu- 
ments, and  as  to  the  renderings  of  many  expressions  in 
every  text,  is  known  to  every  educated  person.  If  the 
author  meant  no  more  than  this,  then  his  apparently 
very  precise  statement  has  no  substantial  value,  be- 
cause it  relates  to  a  non-existent  condition  of  things ; 
probably — though  I  do  not  suppose  he  had  yet 
passed  from  the  stage  of  ornate  rhetoric  to  that  of 
careful  thought — he  did  mean  much  more,  and  intended 
to  intimate  that  no  historical  discovery  or  scientific 
induction  can  contravene  any  statement  found  in  a 
Scripture  where  the  text  is  undisputed  and  not  of 
doubtful  meaning. 

*  Burgon,  Inspiration  and  Interpretation,  serm.  iii.  p.  89 ;  cf.  serm. 
iv.  pp.  93,  94. 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  i39 

Lay  down  such  a  canon,  and  what  is  the  inevitable 
result?  You  make  the  authority  of  Scripture  like 
that  glass  toy  called  a  Rupert's  drop;  break  off  the 
smallest  piece  (and,  remember,  one  end  is  very  thin 
and  brittle),  and  even  the  strong  ball  shivers  into 
dust.  You  call  upon  mankind  to  abstain  from  the 
use  of  faculties  which  you  assert  God  has  given,  and, 
in  effect,  ultimately  leave  them  only  this  choice — 
either  to  submit  to  any  guide  who  can  persuade 
them  of  his  infallibility,  or  to  rest  content  with  some 
vague  form  of  Deism,  and  the  hope  that,  if  there  be 
any  future  life  at  all,  which  is  a  very  doubtful  matter, 
they  may  then  be  comforted  by  some  solution  of  the 
enigmas  of  the  present  one. 

In  what,  then,  may  we  reasonably  expect  that  in- 
spiration should  consist  ?  Should  it  anticipate  the 
researches  of  the  traveller,  the  historian,  or  the  man 
of  science  ?  In  the  province  of  the  discoverable,  should 
it  transfer  mankind  at  a  single  step  from  the  starting- 
point  to  the  goal,  and  act  indeed  as  a  royal  road  to 
learning  ?  Would  there  be  any  advantage  to  the  race 
in  this?  Speaking  for  myself,  I  should  very  much 
like  to  know  what  was  the  history  of  the  earth  in 
the  era  which  intervened  between  the  first  consolida- 
tion of  its  crust  and  the  appearance  thereon  of  life. 
To  ascertain  this  would  save  me  a  great  amount  of 


I40  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

trouble/  but  I  am  not  aware  that  it  would  do  any 

very  direct  good  to  my  moral  and  spiritual  nature; 

and  if  this  had  been  revealed  to  me  in  the  past,   I 

should  have  lost  the  education  both  of  faculties  of 

observation   and   of  powers   of  inductive   reasoning. 

The   moral   ojain   would   have   been   but   slio^ht,    the 

intellectual  loss  considerable.     It  seems,  then,  to  me 

unreasonable  to  expect  that  the  author  of  any  part 

of  Holy  Writ  should  have  been  enabled  to  discern 

what  future  ages  would  discover.     The  most  that  we 

can  expect  would  be  that,  in  using  the  language  of 

his  day,  he  should  be  enabled  to  sift  out  that  which 

was  hurtful  in  its  tendency,  as,  for  example,  to  excise 

expressions    or    repudiate    traditions    favourable    to 

idolatry  or  polytheism,  however  strongly  the  tide  of 

opinion,  in  his  era,  might  set  towards  these. 

We  adopt  a  similar  position  in  regard  to  historical 

inaccuracies.     Suppose  Stephen,  owing  to  a  lapse  of 

memory,  or  the  author  who  reports  his  speech,  did 

make  a  mistake  as  to  the  burial-place  of  Jacob,  would 

that  have  any  serious  bearing  on  the  effective  value  of 

the  speaker's  conviction  of  the  nature  and  mission  of 

Jesus,  and  of  the  reality  of  the  call  which  enabled  him 

^  As  it  happens,  much  of  the  time  which  the  writer  has  spent  in 
scientific  work  has  been  occupied  by  tlie  study  of  the  crystalline  rocks, 
in  the  hope  of  ascertaining  some  information  as  to  the  circumstances 
under  which  certain  of  these  were  formed. 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  141 

to  face  death  boldly,  and  to  perceive,  beyond  the  things 
of  sense,  the  vision  of  the  Crucified  One  in  triumph  ? 
If  we  must  adopt  rules  of  this  kind  in  the  receipt  of 
evidence,  I  will  undertake  to  leave  you  with  very 
little  history  at  all.  Have  you  ever  tried  to  write 
a  description  of  some  incident  which  you  have 
witnessed,  or  scene  which  you  have  visited  ?  I  can 
speak  from  experience,  and  know  how  difficult  it  is  to 
avoid  some  mistakes.  Nay,  I  would  undertake  to 
say  that  if,  when  I  had  written  the  best  account  in 
my  power,  eleven  other  men  of  equal  ability  and  care 
had  been  doing  the  same,  our  accounts  would  not 
correspond  in  every  minute  detail. 

But  it  may  be  said,  "You  are  ordinary  men,  not 
inspired."  I  reply  that,  notwithstanding  our  admitted 
fallibility  and  the  discrepancies  in  our  stories,  you 
would  believe  the  main  facts  to  which  we  testified, 
and  that  you  have  no  right,  simply  in  obedience  to 
some  unauthorized  conception  of  inspiration,  to  set 
up  another  standard  for  the  ordinary  history  of  Scrip- 
ture. Suppose  I  consulted  a  friend  of  proved  holiness 
and  ripe  wisdom  in  some  case  of  conscience,  would  my 
opinion  of  the  value  of  his  advice  be  affected  by  his 
making  a  mistake  in  some  historical  allusion  or 
illustration  ?  We  are  justified,  then,  in  attributing  to 
historical  difficulties  in  Scripture  neither  more  nor  less 


142  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

weight  than  we  should  assign  to  them  in  other  ancient 
records. 

Let  us  now  look  at  the  words  of  the  text  which  I 
have  chosen  as  being  one  of  the  few  which  make  any 
direct  statement  on  the  subject  of  inspiration.  People 
often  quote  this  text  as  if  there  was  no  doubt  as  to 
its  significance.  There  is  really  very  much.  The 
meaning  of  the  most  important  word  cannot  be  deter- 
mined with  absolute  precision ;  the  translation  of  the 
passage  as  a  whole  is  very  uncertain.  As  regards  the 
former  point,  the  phrase,  "given  by  inspiration  of 
God,"  represents  one  word  in  the  original  Greek. 
This  is  a  compound  of  two  words — one  signifying 
''  God,"  the  other  derived  from  that  used  for  "  breath  " 
or  "  spirit."  Thus  it  means  that  in  which  God  may 
be  said  to  breathe,  that  in  which  either  His  Voice,  in 
a  figurative  sense,  may  be  said  to  sound,  or  His  in- 
fluence becomes  a  motive  force ;  it  expresses,  in  short, 
by  a  single  word,  the  idea  conveyed  in  English  by  the 
phrase  which  obviously  has  a  certain  amount  of  pre- 
cision and  a  certain  kind  of  vagueness.  But  the  real 
difficulty,  as  probably  many  of  you  know,  is  to  decide 
upon  its  connection  with  the  other  words  in  the 
passage.  Two  renderings  are  possible — one,  that 
adopted  in  the  Authorized  Version,  "  All  Scripture  is 
given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and   is   profitable  for 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  143 

doctrine ; "  the  other,  which  you  will  find  in  the 
Revised  Version,  ''Every  Scripture  inspired  of  God  is 
also  profitable  for  teaching."  As  a  question  of  scholar- 
ship, it  is  not  clear  which  rendering  is  right.  Each 
has  its  difficulties,  for  the  sentence,  as  it  stands  in  the 
Greek,  is  defective,  not  having  a  verb.  Each  has  been 
supported  by  weighty  authority,  but,  as  intimated  by 
the  change  in  the  Revised  Version,  the  best  scholars 
of  this  age  incline  to  the  second  rendering. 

If  this  be  adopted,  the  passage  states  no  more  than 
all  would  readily  admit,  and  does  not  bring  us  any 
nearer  to  a  definition  of  "  inspiration." 

The  rendering,  however,  adopted  in  the  Authorized 
Version  is  less  conclusive  than  at  first  siofht  it  seems 
to  be.  "  All  ^cripivbre "  cannot  mean  the  Bible  as 
we  have  it,  unless  we  can  show  that  the  writer  is 
speaking  prophetically.  At  the  date  usually  assigned 
to  this  Epistle,  some  of  the  most  important  documents 
now  included  in  the  New  Testament  did  not  exist, 
while  few,  if  any  of  them,  had  obtained  a  wide 
circulation  or  had  been  formally  authorized  by  the 
Church.  The  only  canon  then  known  was  the  Hebrew 
one — or  the  Old  Testament,  as  we  call  it.  Hence,  even 
if  we  adopt  the  rendering  of  the  Authorized  Version, 
the  passage  is  very  far  from  being  conclusive  as  to 
what  inspiration  is  and  to  what  results  it  leads. 


144  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

We  seem,  then,  justified  in  concluding  that  there  is 
no  real  ground  for  the  expectation — which,  indeed, 
is  sometimes  formulated  as  an  assertion — 'that  the 
writers  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  first  preachers  of  the 
Gospel  should  be  infallible  on  matters  of  science  or  of 
history — that,  in  short,  a  revelation  would  be  made  to 
them  in  any  field  which  was  the  legitimate  province 
of  human  discovery. 

In  what,  then,  does  their  inspiration  consist  ?  We 
may  answer  this  question,  so  far  as  it  can  be 
answered,  by  considering  what  we  ought  to  expect 
on  the  supposition — and  before  a  Christian  audience 
I  may  venture  to  assume  the  truth  of  this — that  there 
is  a  God,  and  that  it  is  His  will  to  reveal  Himself  to 
man;  that  the  influence  of  spirit  on  matter,  of  the 
Divine  on  the  human,  is  a  thing  not  incredible  and 
impossible,  but  to  be  anticipated  as  a  necessary, 
indeed  a  leading,  factor  in  the  process  of  the  education 
of  the  race. 

In  matters  of  ordinary  knowledge  we  expect  no 
more  than  we  should  do  of  other  writers  and  wit- 
nesses, namely,  that  they  should  take  reasonable  care 
in  ascertaining  facts,  and  be  thoroughly  honest  in 
recording  them;  we  expect  to  find  them  using  the 
language  and  expressing  the  opinions  as  to  scientific 
phenomena  which  were  current  among  the   men  of 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  145 

their  age.  We  do  not  expect  them  to  know  the 
geography  of  lands  which  they  had  never  seen;  to 
test,  by  appliances  yet  undiscovered,  the  traditional 
history  of  their  epoch ;  or  to  anticipate  the  researches 
in  physical  and  natural  science  for  thousands  of  years 
to  come.  But  if  the  conceptions  of  their  age  should 
embody  ideas  distinctly  false  or  strongly  tending  to 
produce  moral  deterioration,  these  ought  to  be  expur- 
gated and  replaced  by  others  which  were  true,  and 
more  ennobling.  We  expect  that  as  time  went  on  they 
would  tell  us  more  and  more  clearly  of  God,  and  of  our 
place  and  work  in  the  Divine  economy,  for  we  know 
of  no  process  of  science,  no  method  of  discovery,  by 
means  of  which  man,  obtaining  all  his  ideas  from  the 
concrete  and  the  finite,  can  attain,  of  himself,  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  unconditioned  and  the  infinite. 

By  what  searching  can  I  find  out  God  ?  From  the 
phenomena  of  this  world  I  may  infer  His  existence  as 
the  simpler  solution  of  a  dilemma  of  difiiculties,  but 
I  cannot  prove  it.  Demonstration  is  impossible. 
What  I  or  others  have  regarded  as  the  influence  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  upon  our  natures,  thrilling  through 
them  like  an  electric  current — which,  hastino-  through 
the  wire  from  an  unseen  and  inaccessible  source,  is 
manifested  at  the  nearer  end  in  almost  dazzling  light 
— this  influence  may  be  no  mare  than  the  vibration 

L 


146  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

of  the  nerves,  the  clashing  of  the  molecules  of  this 
bodily  frame,  self- begotten,  self-produced, — a  mere 
tiny  storm  in  the  tiny  tea-cup  of  individual  humanity. 

If,  then,  there  be  a  God,  if  man  is  to  know  Him 
and  of  Him,  He  must  reveal  Himself  to  man  and 
through  man.  You  who  regard  the  Christian's  creed 
as  "not  proven,"  you  believe  that  there  is  a  Great 
First  Cause,  you  believe  in  the  education  of  the 
world,  in  the  progress  of  humanity.  Surely,  then,  there 
is  an  a  "priori  reasonableness  in  our  position  when  we 
reo-ard  this  education  as  God's  work,  and  believe  that, 
by  processes  which  we  can  only  imperfectly  compre- 
hend and  by  methods  which  we  cannot  precisely  define, 
He  manifests  Himself  through  man  to  men,  and  thus 
is  leading  us  onward  from  the  corruptible  to  the 
incorruptible,  from  the  mortal  to  the  immortal,  from 
the  temporal  to  the  eternal. 

We  believe,  then,  in  a  revelation ;  we  believe  in  an 
inspiration,  while  we  decline  to  extend  it  to  matters 
with  which  it  has  no  proper  concern.  Its  function 
is  to  tell  us  of  that  which  we  cannot  discover  for 
ourselves — to  tell  us  of  a  Father  in  heaven,  and  how 
we  children  can  best  draw  nigh  unto  Him.  We  judge 
of  the  validity  of  any  claim  to  inspiration  by  the 
evidence  of  the  man's  life,  by  his  relationship  to 
circumstances,   by   the    tendency  and    effect   of  his 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  147 

words.  We  make  use  in  his  case,  with  the  need- 
ful modifications,  of  the  rules  which  we  apply  to  all 
testimony  and  all  authority,  whether  in  history,  in 
science,  or  in  ethics ;  and  in  so  doing  we  need  not,  I 
believe,  be  afraid  to  claim  an  inspiration  for  the 
Scriptures  or  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  God  as  it  is 
breathed  through  the  lips  of  men  of  olden  time. 

Some  will  call  this  a  low  view  of  inspiration.  I 
believe  that,  however  imperfectly  expressed,  it  is  a 
true  view,  that  it  will  stand  the  test  of  experience,  and 
that  it  harmonizes  with  the  analogy  of  the  Divine 
order  in  Nature.  Its  application  to  the  oldest  Book 
of  the  Bible  is  indicated  in  the  next  sermon. 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE  (No.  U.)} 

"  Your  fathers  dwelt  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood  in  old 
time,  even  Terali,  the  father  of  Abraham,  and  the  father  of 
Nachor  :  and  they  served  other  gods." — Josh.  xxiv.  2. 

In  my  last  sermon  I  endeavoured  to  give  a  brief 
outline  of  the  idea  which  the  word  "  inspiration,"  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  should  convey  to  our  minds,  and  of  the 
information  which  was  to  be  expected  from  an 
inspired  writer.  It  is  my  present  intention  to  make 
some  remarks  on  the  application  of  these  principles 
to  the  earlier  Books  of  the  Bible.  In  what  sense,  if 
any,  are  they  inspired  ?  Are  they  an  infallible  history 
of  the  making  of  the  world,  and  the  infancy  of  the 
human  race  ?  or  are  they  a  mere  collection  of  legends, 
highly  interesting  on  account  of  their  antiquity,  but 
with  no  more  moral  value  than  the  folklore  of  any 
other  ancient  nation  ?  In  short,  are  they  mere  guesses 
at  truth  ?  or  are  they  steps  towards  the  truth,  which 
seem  to  indicate  a  guidance  higher  than  that  of  man  ? 
These  are  questions  of  great  interest  and  of  no 
*  Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  Sexagesima  Sunday,  1889. 
148 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  149 

small  importance.  Less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
since  they  were  considered  vital  by  not  a  few  persons 
who  would  have  made  the  authorship  and  authority 
of  the  Pentateuch  a  question  on  which  a  Church 
should  stand  or  fall.  Happily,  they  are  now  regarded 
with  calmer  eyes.  They  are  still  far  from  settled, 
but  it  is  seen  that  the  investigations  of  physical  and 
historic  science  leave  untouched  the  vital  principles^ 
and  only  modify  or  destroy  conceptions  which  are  of 
human  origin  or  of  temporary  importance.  We  still 
recognize  the  voice  and  the  guidance  of  God,  though 
speaking  in  a  tongue  and  leading  by  a  way  different 
from  those  which  we  had  formerly  supposed. 

Restricting  our  inquiry  on  the  present  occasion  to 
the  few  earliest  Books  of  the  Bible,  called  collectively 
the  Pentateuch,  the  first  question  for  consideration 
is  obviously  that  of  their  date  and  authorship.  In 
regard  to  these  many  different  opinions  are  enter- 
tained, which,  however,  will  be  found  to  lie  between 
two  extremes — the  one,  which  is  supported  by  the 
later  synagogue  and  by  traditional  Church  opinion, 
that  Moses  was  the  composer  of  the  entire  Pentateuch, 
from  its  first  letter  to  its  last ;  the  other,  that  the 
whole  work  was  composed  after  the  return  from  the 
Babylonian  Captivity,  though  it  doubtless  embodies  a 
considerable  amount  of  earlier  tradition.     Those  who 


I50  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

support  the  latter  view  consider  the  historical  value 
of  the  Pentateuch  to  be  hardly  greater  than  that  of 
a  collection  of  folklore  and  an  epitome  of  opinion 
among  the  most  educated  and  spiritually  minded  Jews 
four  or  five  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  Be- 
tween these  extremes  the  truth,  I  believe,  will  be 
found. 

To  answer  the  question  proposed  above,  we  must 
glance  at  the  history  of  the  Hebrew  canon.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Old  Testament,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  in  its  present  form,  has  existed  for  at 
least  two  thousand  two  hundred  years.  The  date  of 
its  latest  Book  may  be  fixed,  with  no  risk  of  serious 
error,  as  B.C.  420.  This,  then,  gives  one  limit  to  our 
inquiry.  The  century  succeeding  the  return  from 
Captivity  after  the  decree  of  Cyrus  is  the  latest  date 
to  which  any  part  of  the  Old  Testament  can  be 
assigned,  and  before  long,  among  the  scribes  of 
Palestine,  great  precautions  were  taken  to  prevent 
even  a  variation  of  the  text. 

But  how  much  belongs  to  this  era?  Obviously 
certain  Books,  or  portions  of  Books — such  as  the 
writino-s  of  Daniel,  Ezekiel,  and  the  later  minor 
prophets,  some  of  the  Psalms,  the  conclusions  of  the 
Books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles,  with  the  whole  of  the 
subsequent  history — are  later  than  the  destruction  of 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  151 

Jerusalem  by  the  army  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Did  all 
the  older  sacred  Books  perish  in  the  conflagration  of 
the  Temple,  and  were  they  reproduced  from  memory 
by  those  who  had  been  their  guardians  ?  or  were  the 
records  themselves  preserved,  and  were  they  only 
revised  and  edited — to  use  a  modern  phrase — by  Ezra 
and  his  fellow-scribes  ? 

The  former  alternative  seems  to  me  very  improbable  ; 
but  that  a  certain  freedom  of  treatment  in  regard  to 
the  sacred  Books  was  permissible  in  the  era  ante- 
cedent to  the  completion  of  the  canon  may  be  safely 
assumed ;  for  even  those  who  consider  themselves  the 
most  orthodox  defenders  of  the  authority  of  Scripture 
are  compelled  to  admit  the  occasional  interpolation  of 
new  matter  into  the  sacred  text.  Indeed,  one  of  the 
best  and  most  conservative  of  the  Old  Testament 
critics  now  living  in  Germany  ^  assures  us  that  the 
equivalency  of  the  Thorah  (or  the  Law)  and  the  Pen- 
tateuch is  a  comparatively  late  idea,  not  more  ancient 
than  the  completion  of  the  Old  Testament  canon. 

Further,  the  great  majority  of  modern  scholars, 
including  many  who  are  earnest  Christians,  while  they 
differ,  as  may  be  expected,  on  many  points  of  detail, 
are  agreed  in  considering  the  Pentateuch  to  be  a 
composite    work,  containing   at   least    three  or  four 

^  Dr.  F.  Delitzsch,  A  New  Commentary  on  Genesis :  Introduction. 


152  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

distinct  documents  of  different  ages,  and  brought  into 
its  present  form  by  the  addition  of  fresh  material  from 
more  than  one  hand.  Sometimes  the  editor,  as  we 
may  call  him,  has  only  quoted  or  pieced  together  older 
records,  but  sometimes  he  has  acted  as  an  authoi', 
though,  no  doubt,  digesting  ancient  material  or  fol- 
lowing established  tradition.  Thus  in  the  Book 
Genesis  three  fundamental  documents  are  recognized. 
In  two  of  these  the  Almighty  is  designated  by  the 
word  Elohim,  rendered  "  God  "  in  our  version ;  in  the 
third  by  the  word  Javeh  (or  Jehovah),  commonly 
rendered  "  the  Lord."  To  one  of  the  Elohists  (as  they 
are  called) — and  the  one  now  regarded  as  the  later  of 
the  two — belongs  the  opening  section  of  Genesis,  as 
far  as  the  end  of  the  third  verse  of  the  second  chapter  ; 
to  the  other  Elohist  belong  mainly  the  twentieth  and 
remaining  chapters.  The  section  between  these  two 
passages  is  in  great  part  the  work  of  the  Jehovist. 

Again,  without  entering  upon  further  details,  both 
Leviticus  and  Deuteronomy,  as  Books,  and  in  a  form 
resembling  at  all  closely  the  present  one,  are  regarded 
as  the  work  of  later  and  separate  hands,  though  con- 
taining much  very  ancient  material,  directly  or  in- 
directly from  the  above  sources. 

To  what  period,  then,  are  we  to  assign  the  various 
components   and   the  completed   work  ?     Space  will 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  153 

not  permit  me  to  give  more  than  the  barest  outline. 
Perhaps  I  shall  put  the  matter  before  you  most 
clearly  in  a  series  of  statements,  every  one  of  which 
appears  to  me  to  rest,  according  to  the  ordinary  rules 
of  scientific  criticism,  upon  very  strong  foundations. 

1.  At  the  date  of  the  Exodus  the  art  of  writing 
had  been  in  existence  for  several  centuries,  both  in 
Egypt  and  in  Chaldea,  so  that  there  is  nothing  im- 
possible in  the  supposition  that  Moses  was  the  author 
of  the  Pentateuch,  or  of  a  part  of  it;  for  "he  was 
learned,"  as  we  are  told,  "  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians." 

2.  Many  points  of  detail  in  the  Pentateuchal  legis- 
lation indicate  an  Egyptian  influence,  and  so  may  be 
naturally  assigned  to  an  epoch  while  the  memory  of 
the  nation's  stay  in  that  country  was  still  very  fresh. 

3.  The  greater  part  of  the  Pentateuch  is  older  than 
the  Babylonian  Captivity,  though  the  last  recension, 
including  a  considerable  part  of  Leviticus,  may  date 
from  immediately  after  that  period. 

4.  The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  is  probably  next  in 
order  of  age,  though  it  incorporates  a  considerable 
amount  of  older  material.  A  not  improbable  date  for 
its  completion  would  be  about  seven  centuries  before 
the  birth  of  Christ. 

5.  To  the  greater  part  of  the  remainder  a  much 


154  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

more  ancient  date  must  be  assigned.  There  seem  no 
valid  reasons  against  supposing  considerable  portions 
to  be  documents  contemporaneous  with  the  events 
which  they  describe,  though  there  may  have  been 
some  alterations  made  in  later  recensions.  Hence  we 
need  not  hesitate  to  claim  a  Mosaic  basis  for  the 
Pentateuch.  It  is  no  legendary  tale,  shaped  into  some 
kind  of  consistency  during  the  later  days  of  Judaism, 
but  is  a  record,  in  many  parts  actually  contempo- 
raneous, of  the  nation's  youth.  Though  it  may  not 
be  possible  in  all  cases  to  distinguish  between  original 
material  and  later  accretions,  the  Book  (speaking  of  it 
for  the  moment  scientifically,  and  apart  from  theo- 
logical questions)  is  an  old  historical  work,  possessing 
a  value  similar  to  that  of  the  ancient  records  of  Egypt 
and  Chaldea. 

I  pass  on  now  to  the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis, 
which  belong,  as  I  have  said,  to  one  or  other  of  the 
oldest  group  of  Pentateuchal  documents.  In  order  to 
appreciate  their  place  in  history,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  turn  away  for  a  moment  from  the  account  of  the 
chosen  people. 

When  Abraham  descended  into  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  he  found  settled  there  a  nation  which  had 
attained  to  a  high  state  of  civilization.  It  was  even 
then   far   from  young,  as   we   count   time;   some  of 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  155 

those  vast  monuments,  which  still  endure,  were  even 
then  comparatively  ancient — as  venerable,  at  least, 
as  many  an  English  cathedral.  Yet  more,  when 
Abraham  went  forth  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  he  left 
behind  a  nation  hardly  less  civilized — a  nation  whose 
beginnings  stretch  back  to  a  past,  not  less,  perhaps 
even  more,  remote  than  that  of  Egypt. 

Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  this  region,  the  cradle 
of  the  Hebrew  race,  the  birthplace  of  that  Faith  which 
is  the  guiding  principle  of  our  lives. 

The  two  great  rivers  of  Mesopotamia  pass  onward 
to  the  sea  through  a  vast  alluvial  plain,  almost  as  long 
as  the  British  Isles,  three  or  four  hundred  miles  wide, 
and  of  extraordinary  natural  fertility.  This  "  land  of 
Shinar  "  soon  became  a  cradle  of  civilization.  It  was 
occupied,  perhaps  six  thousand  years  ago,  by  a  people 
concerning  whose  aspect,  language,  and  religion  much 
has  been  discovered  of  late  years.  The  Accadian  nation 
(for  so  it  is  commonly  called)  was  a  member  of  the  same 
great  division  of  the  human  race  as  the  Tartars  ;  their 
religious  conceptions  belonged  to  the  childhood  of 
humanity.  Each  natural  object  was  believed  to  have 
its  own  spirit.  Their  priests  were  sorcerers,  their 
prayers  mainly  incantations.  This  race,  in  process  of 
time,  was  dominated  and  ultimately  absorbed  by  a 
branch  of  the  great  Semitic  family — perhaps  partly  by 


156  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

conquest,  partly  by  peaceful  immigration.     Be  this  as 
it  may,    the   population,  the   language,  the   religion, 
gradually  became  Semitic,  modified,  however,  by  the 
influences  of  the  older  race.     This  fusion  of  the  two 
nations  had  been  accomplished  long  before  the  days 
of  Abraham.     There  is  reason  to  think  that  the  rise 
of  the  Semitic  power  in  the  valley  of  the  two  rivers 
dates  from  several  centuries  before  his  time;  indeed, 
the  best  authorities  assign  to  Sargon,  the  Semite  King 
of  Accad,  a  date  so  remote  as  B.C.  3700.^    The  language, 
which  was  not  very  different  from  Hebrew,  and  the 
religion  of  this   people,  are   now  well   known.      In 
the  later  days  of  Biblical  history,  they  figure  as  the 
Assyrians   and  the   Chaldeans,  devastators   and  de- 
stroyers of  Israel  and  of  Judah.     Thus  the  Hebrew  is 
only  one  tribe  of  the  great  family  which  in  ancient 
days  overspread  so  large  a  portion  of  the  East.     In 
the  tenth  and  eleventh   chapters  of  Genesis  we  find 
the  history  of  their  migrations  in  a  traditional  form, 
nations  being  represented  as  men.     When  we  examine 
the   records   of  the  religion   of  these  ancient    Chal- 
deans, we  are  astonished  to  find  therein  narratives 
of  the  Creation,  of  a  Paradise — perhaps  also  of  the 
Temptation  and  Fall  of  man — of  a  great  Flood,  and 

*  See,   for  example,  Professor  Sayce,  Lectures  on  the  Origin  and 
Growth  of  Beligion  (Hibbert  Lectures,  1887),  p.  21,  etc. 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  157 

of  a  subsequent  Dispersion  of  mankind,  which  not 
only  present  such  a  strong  general  resemblance  to, 
but  also  exhibit  so  many  minute  coincidences  with, 
the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis,  that  we  cannot  doubt 
that  both  have  a  common  origin. 

This  may  be  explained  by  one  of  the  following 
hypotheses :  (1)  The  Jews  became  acquainted  with 
and  adopted  the  Chaldean  legends  during  the  Baby- 
lonian Captivity.  This  is  hardly  probable  :  for,  apart 
from  the  antagonistic  feeling  due  to  circumstances, 
there  is  no  doubt  that,  as  I  have  already  said,  these 
parts  of  the  Hebrew  records  are  much  older  than  the 
days  of  Sennacherib  or  Nebuchadnezzar.  (2)  The  Chal- 
deans borrowed  them  from  the  Jews.  But  this  is 
impossible,  because  the  Chaldean  version  of  the  stories 
is  much  older  than  the  age  of  the  Exodus.  Hence 
it  seems  more  probable  that  (3)  the  Hebrew  account 
was  derived,  at  a  very  early  period,  from  Chaldean 
sources,  for  the  close  correspondence  between  the  two 
forbids  us  to  suppose  that  the  form  of  the  history  was 
any  part  of  a  revelation  made  to  Moses.  If  it  was 
derived,  to  what  period  may  be  assigned  its  trans- 
mission ?  Now,  it  is  remarkable  that  the  Hebrew  story 
of  the  world's  earliest  days  does  not  closely  correspond 
with  the  Egyptian  legends ;  nor  does  it,  like  the  legis- 
lative part  of  Exodus,  indicate  any  Egyptian  influences. 


158  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

After  the  migration  of  Jacob,  there  is  no  evidence 
that  his  descendants  were  ever  in  touch  with  the 
peoples  of  the  Euphrates  valley,  except  by  way  of 
occasional  hostility,  until  a  late  period  in  the  history 
of  his  nation.  It  seems,  then,  highly  probable  that 
these  traditions  were  brought  by  the  family  of  Abra- 
ham, when  he  went  out  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  on 
his  journey  to  Palestine. 

"  So,"  it  may  be  said,  "  you  reduce  the  first  eleven 
chapters  of  Genesis  to  a  mere  collection  of  folklore, 
and  deny  to  them  the  character  of  an  inspired  work  ?  " 
On  the  contrary,  I  now  proceed  to  show  that,  if  this 
hypothesis  be  correct,  they  are,  in  the  truest  sense  of 
the  word,  inspired.  Hitherto  I  have  referred  only  to 
correspondences  in  the  Chaldean  and  Hebrew  narra- 
tives ;  I  will  now  briefly  indicate  their  differences. 
Every  one  of  these  stories  in  the  Chaldean  version  is, 
so  to  say,  saturated  with  polytheism,  for  the  Chaldean 
religion  was  a  polytheism,  and  this  had  been  further 
degraded  by  the  old  Accadian  influences.  One 
example  will  suffice.  When  Hasisadra,  the  Chaldean 
Noah,  goes  forth  from  the  ark,  he  ofiers  a  sacrifice, 
and  to  it,  we  are  told,  "  the  gods  swarmed  like  flies." 
The  Hebrew  account  of  the  early  history  of  the 
world  has  been  purged  from  every  trace  of  polytheism, 
and  it  proclaims  that  the  God  of  Israel  is  one  God^ 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  159 

Creator  and  Maker  of  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  of  all 
that  is  and  all  that  lives.  By  what  process  of  mental 
evolution,  at  that  era  of  the  world's  history,  could  a 
stride  so  gigantic  have  been  taken  ?  All  the  influences 
of  the  age  were  opposed  to  it.  The  stately  buildings, 
the  graven  images,  the  polytheistic  worship,  the 
elaborate  ritual  of  the  more  educated — the  lingering 
shamanistic  superstitions  of  the  common  people — all 
tended  in  an  opposite  direction.  At  such  a  time, 
under  such  influences,  the  sudden  rise  of  a  pure 
monotheism  without  a  revelation  is  a  thing,  it  seems 
to  me,  as  incredible  as  Christianity  without  a  Christ. 

We  claim,  then,  for  this,  the  oldest  part  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  an  inspiration  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the 
word,  because  it  reveals  to  man  what  he  has  not  dis- 
covered and  could  not  discover  for  himself.  Perhaps 
it  may  be  asserted  that  monotheism,  like  polytheism, 
is  merely  a  stage  in  the  evolution  of  human  thought. 
I  cannot  now  discuss  this,  but  will  only  say  that  I 
believe  all  the  evidence  which  we  possess  points  to 
a  very  different  conclusion.  Shamanism  and  poly- 
theism seem  natural  to  man — so  natural  that  they 
often  blend  with  Christianity  and  lurk  under  its  garb. 
We  claim  an  inspiration,  not  for  the  outward  form, 
but  for  the  moral  and  religious  truths  which  the  Book 
conveys.     No  man  of  science  in  the  present  day  can 


i6o  THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE. 

regard  the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis  as  history  in 
the  sense  in  which  that  word  is  now  used,  but  they 
contain  important  fragments  of  ancient  tradition  and 
relate  in  an  allegorical  form  the  deepest  spiritual 
truths.  The  Creation  of  the  world  by  the  will  of 
God  is  a  reality,  though  the  account  in  Genesis  be 
but  a  poetic  conception ;  the  Fall  of  man  is  a  terrible 
moral  truth,  though  the  tale  of  the  apple  be  but  an 
allegory;  God's  judgment  of  sin  is  a  fact  which  the 
world  will  have  to  remember — for  it  is  inevitable — 
thouofh  there  was  never  an  occasion  when  the  waters 
swept  away  all  mankind  save  eight  persons.  Some 
consider  this  view  of  inspiration  a  virtual  denial  of  it. 
I  retort  that  it  is  a  flat  denial  of  a  theory  long  preva- 
lent ;  but  I  ask  on  what  authority  that  theory  rests. 
And  I  know  the  answer  which  every  honest  man 
must  give  me.  But  I  also  affirm  that  this  view  is 
in  analogy  with  all  that  we  can  learn  of  God's  deal- 
ing with  mankind  ;  leading  them,  as  we  lead  children, 
from  truth  to  truth,  declaring  things  as  they  are  able 
to  bear  them,  passing  from  allegory  to  fact,  from 
symbol  to  idea,  from  the  less  to  the  more  perfect 
truth.  Thus  we  see  that  "through  the  ages  an  in- 
creasing purpose  runs,"  and  we  watch  the  dawning  of 
the  lio"ht  from  its  first  faint  eastern  flush  in  a  far-off 
time,  till  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  arose,  in  Whose 


THE  INSPIRATION  OF  SCRIPTURE.  161 

light  we  walk.  He  it  was  Who  said,  "I  have  yet 
many  things  to  say  unto  yon,  but  ye  cannot  bear 
them  now.  Howbeit  when  He,  the  Spirit  of  Truth, 
is  come,  He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth." 


Note  on  page  156. — The  words,  "perhaps  also  of  the  Temptation, 
etc.,"  were  as  strong  as  I  felt  justified  in  using  when  this  sermon  was 
written ;  but  a  paper,  published  by  Mr.  W.  St.  Chad  Boscawen  while 
this  volume  is  passing  through  the  press,  would  warrant  me  now  in 
saying  "almost  certainly."  The  paper,  for  a  copy  of  which  I  am 
indebted  to  his  kindness,  is  entitled  "  The  Babylonian  Legend  of  the 
Serpent  Tempter"  {Tiie  Babylonian  and  Oriental  Record,  vol.  iv. 
No.  11 ;  1890). 


M 


THE   GROWTH    OF  JESUS   (No.    I.).^ 

"  And  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favour 
with  God  and  man." — St.  Luke  ii.  52. 

Whethee  we  are  all  eager  to  see  ourselves  as  others 
see  us  may  be  doubted.  That  we  like  to  see  others 
with  our  own  eyes  can  hardly  be  denied.  Hence  the 
almost  universal  interest  felt  in  biographical  details — 
an  interest  which  may  arise  from  motives  either  con- 
temptible or  commendable.  The  former  foster  a  love 
of  gossip,  as  it  is  called — that  fondness  for  knowing 
all  about  our  neighbours'  business,  not  that  we  may 
be  more  able  to  help  them,  but  that  we  may  have  the 
better  chance  of  making  depreciatory  comments  and 
indulging  in  self-righteous  censure.  This  is  the 
delight  of  empty  brains  and  paltry  souls,  the  espe- 
cial fault  of  little  or  idle  communities.  To  know 
how  the  baser  sort  of  our  fellow-creatures  live  cannot 
elevate  us  ;  to  know  how  commonplace   people  live 

»  Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  on  the  Third  Sunday  after 
Epiphany,  1889. 

162 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  163 

can  be  of  little  use ;  but  to  know  how  the  great  and 
good  have  done  their  work  in  life,  to  hear  of  diffi- 
culties overcome  and  temptations  resisted,  to  read  of 
noble  thoughts,  of  high  aspirations  and  of  unselfish 
deeds,  may  encourage  us  in  hours  of  trial  or  provoke 
us  to  a  worthy  emulation.  This  desire  springs  from 
a  right  motive,  and  may  lawfully  be  gratified. 

In  so  reading  a  biography,  I  suspect  that  many 
people,  if  they  have  the  habit  of  casting  their  eye  over 
a  book  before  studying  it,  glance  first  at  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end — at  the  history  of  the  man's  boyhood 
and  of  his  later  years.     By  this  means  they  ascertain 
and  compare  the  raw  material,  as  we  may  call  it,  and 
the  finished  work — what  the  man  received  by  inherit- 
ance as  a  kind  of  patrimony,  and  what  this  produced 
when  disciplined  by  his  own  efforts  and  modified  by  his 
environment.    Thus  any  one  who  might  set  himself  to 
write  a  systematic  biography  would  carefully  collect 
and  arrange  every  scrap  of  information  which  was  to 
be  obtained  concerning  the  early  years  of  his  subject, 
and,  if  this  was  scanty,  would,  in  effect,  apologize  to 
the  reader  for  the  inevitable  deficiency. 

I  have  dwelt  a  little  on  this  topic  because  I  wish 
to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  authors 
of  the  Four  Gospels  fail  to  satisfy  this  want,  and  pay 
no   attention    to   an    ordinary   rule   of    biographical 


1 64  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

writers.  Two  of  them  do  not  say  a  word  about  the 
earlier  days  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  They  begin  their 
story  with  His  public  ministry,  that  is,  when  He  was 
about  thirty  years  old.  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke 
give  us  only  a  few  particulars.  In  the  one  Gospel 
these  occupy  rather  more  than  thirty  verses,  and 
relate  only  to  the  days  of  the  infancy.  Between  the 
return  from  Egypt  and  the  beginning  of  the  ministry 
there  is  a  complete  blank.  In  the  other  Gospel  there 
is  a  little  more  information,  occupying,  perhaps,  four 
times  the  space  of  the  former.  This  supplies  certain 
particulars  to  the  history  of  the  infancy,  it  tells  us  of 
a  single  but  important  incident  of  the  boyhood,  and 
then  two  verses  sum  up  the  eighteen  years  between 
the  visit  to  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  and  the  begin- 
ning of  the  mission  work.  Of  these  verses  I  have 
chosen  one,  and  propose  to  draw  your  attention,  in 
this  and  in  the  following  sermon,  to  two  points  therein. 
First,  however,  I  must  dwell  a  little  longer  on  this 
artlessness  or  unskilfulness  of  the  historians,  because 
I  think  that  in  the  present  day  it  is  a  matter  of  con- 
siderable importance.  Christianity  is  something  more 
than  a  system  of  philosophy  or  of  ethics.  It  differs 
from  the  teaching  of  any  school  of  Athens,  from  the 
mysticism  of  Sakya-Muni,  or  the  maxims  of  Confucius. 
It  is  the  history  of  a  Life,  the  incidents  of  which,  to 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  165 

no  small  extent,  are  the  doctrine  and  the  philosophy. 
Far  more  than  these  other  masters,  Jesus  taught  by 
means  of  a  drama  in  which  He  was  the  principal, 
almost  the  sole,  Actor. 

But,  at  the  present  day,  a  sort  of  hazy  esoteric 
Christianity  has  become  rather  fashionable,  and  we 
are  informed  by  its  apostles  that  the  Christ  of 
Christendom  owes  more  to  illusion  than  to  history. 
The  writers,  then,  of  the  Four  Gospels  must  be  put  out 
of  court  as  witnesses  unworthy  of  credit.  This  is 
often  done  in  a  very  summary  fashion,  which  may  be 
epitomized  as  follows :  "  They  must  be  romancing, 
because  miracles  do  not  happen."  Well,  that  opens  a 
wide  question,  as  to  the  extent  of  the  self-confident 
critic's  knowledge  (though,  perhaps,  here  we  may  soon 
reach  a  limit),  and  as  to  what  we  mean  by  the  word 
"  miracle  " — so  wide  a  question  that  I  must  at  present 
pass  it  by. 

Assuming,  then,  that  the  occurrence  of  what  we  call 
miracles  is  not  impossible,  we  come  to  this  question — 
Are  the  Gospels  and  their  authors  worthy  of  credit  ? 
To  these  documents  a  comparatively  late  date  has 
been  assigned  by  some,  who  assert  that  they  do  not 
tell  the  unadorned  tale  of  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus 
of  Palestine,  but  weave  into  it  a  tissue  of  legends 
which  were  evolved  from  the  fervid  imaginations  and 


i66  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

ardent  zeal  of  more  than  one  generation  of  excitable 
disciples.  In  respect  to  these  allegations,  we  cannot, 
indeed,  place  it  beyond  all  question  that  the  four 
documents  were  written  either  by  companions  of  the 
Saviour  or  by  the  men  to  whom  they  had  told  their 
story ;  but  we  can  prove  that,  if  they  are  not  of  the 
Apostolic  age,  they  are  but  little  later  in  date  ;  we 
can  prove  that  the  narrative,  in  its  main  outlines,  is 
that  which  was  believed  and  taught  by  the  Apostles, 
and  that  there  is  no  valid  reason  (apart  from  the 
miraculous  character)  for  doubting  its  genuineness. 

Now,  the  authors  of  the  Gospels  do  not  write  as 
ordinary  biographers.  They  tell  a  story  which  is 
obviously  incomplete.  In  two  only  of  the  writings 
do  we  find  any  sign  of  definite  purpose.  St.  Luke, 
in  the  prefatory  verses  of  his  Gospel,  indicates  an 
intent  of  putting  on  record  certain  events  which  it 
was  especially  important  for  his  friend  to  know,  and 
seems  to  intimate  that  untrustworthy  stories  were 
already  becoming  current;  and  St.  John  obviously 
writes  in  order  to  bring  out  in  stronger  relief  the 
fact  that  Christ  was,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  words, 
''  Son  of  God."  But,  notwithstanding  this,  the  result 
in  every  case  is  a  series  of  anecdotes  or  reminiscences, 
and  not  a  biography  in  any  sense  of  the  word.  We 
can  understand  the  gaps  in  the  story  on  the  assumption 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  167 

that  the  Apostles  were  artless  and  truthful  writers — 
men  of  perfect  honesty,  but,  as  is  said  to  have  been 
the  case,  of  little  or  no  literary  culture.  But  if  the 
Gospels  were  in  any  sense  the  outcome  of  fraud  or 
deliberate  forgery,  as  is  sometimes  broadly  hinted,  is 
it  probable  that  they  would  have  resembled  these 
rather  disjointed  and  fragmentary  collections  of 
episodes  ?  If  the  workman  were  cunning  enough  to 
frame  and  fashion  a  story  so  effective  as  that  of  the 
life  of  Christ,  depend  upon  it  the  master-hand  would 
have  been  betrayed  by  the  more  perfect  finish  of  the 
work. 

Thus  the  very  defects,  as  I  may  call  them,  of  the 
Gospels  are  a  strong  testimony,  though  indirect  and 
unconscious,  to  the  sincerity  and  truthfulness  of  their 
authors.  They  tell  us  so  little  about  the  early  days 
of  Jesus.  Books,  however,  there  are  which  profess 
to  satisfy  the  want — books  which,  in  a  negative  aspect 
(as  I  may  term  it),  are  well  worth  study.  These  are  the 
so-called  Apocryphal  Gospels.  Four,  at  least,  of  them 
relate  many  incidents  connected  with  the  Saviour's 
birth  or  concerning  His  childhood.  It  is  difficult  to 
fix  the  dates  of  these  documents  with  any  precision, 
because  it  is  often  doubtful  whether  the  present  are 
the  original  forms,  and  what  modifications  they  have 
undergone  at  the  hands  of  their  editors ;  still,  there  is 


i68  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

no  doubt  that  many  of  the  traditions  which  they  have 
preserved  are  of  great  antiquity,  and  one  of  these 
Gospels,  which  bears  the  name  of  Thomas,  is  gene- 
rally held  to  date  from  the  latter  part  of  the  second 
century.  The  numerous  anecdotes  related  in  these 
books  lead  us  to  make  two  inferences — one,  that  the 
miracles  performed  by  the  Lord  Jesus  in  His  child- 
hood were  of  a  more  astounding  nature  than  those 
wrought  during  His  ministry ;  the  other,  that,  as  He 
increased  in  stature.  He  did  not  increase  in  favour 
with  man.  The  books  tell  us  that  He  was  disliked  and 
dreaded,  as  One  Whom  it  was  dangerous  to  irritate. 
They  represent  the  Child  Jesus — to  put  the  matter  in 
plain  English — as  working  miracles  just  as  a  clever 
lad  might  show  off  conjuring  tricks.  He  does  a  bit  of 
mischief,  and  then  sets  it  right  by  working  a  miracle.^ 
Sometimes  also  the  miracle  can  be  called  by  no  other 
name  than  vindictive,  as  when  He  smites  with  para- 
lysis or  death  a  boy  who  had  tormented,  or  a  master 
who  had  impatiently  chastised  Him.^  In  short,  these 
documents,  even  though  they  may  possibly  include 
some  fragments  of  true  tradition,  are  little  better 
than  a  collection  of  idle  tales,  of  which  the  chief  value 


^  Gos'pel  of  the  Infancy,  ch.  xxxvi.,  xxxvii.,  xl. 
2  Ibid.  ch.  xlvi.,  xlix. ;  Gospel  of  Pseudo- Matthew,  ch.  xxxviii.     See 
also  Gosjpel  of  Thomas. 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  169 

is  to'  bring  into  stronger  relief  the  temperate  self- 
restraint  of  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament. 

Further,  if  the  last-named  were  separated  by  more 
than  a  full  century  from  the  lifetime  of  Christ,  they 
must  have  known  of  these  stories,  and  have  put 
them  aside,  of  deliberate  purpose,  as  unworthy  of 
credit;  that  is  to  say,  they  must  have  been,  not 
credulous  enthusiasts,  but  men  of  sufficient  critical 
power  to  run  counter  to  the  dominant  appetite  for 
the  marvellous,  and  to  select  from  the  mass  of  current 
stories  such  as  seemed  to"  them  worthy  of  credit ;  other- 
wise they  must  have  lived  before  these  legends  had 
obtained  any  currency,  that  is,  many  years  before  the 
middle  of  the  second  century.  From  this  dilemma  I 
do  not  see  any  escape,  and  commend  it  to  the  con- 
sideration of  those  who  insist  on  a  late  date  for  the 
Gospels. 

I  pass  on  now  to  say  a  few  words  on  one  clause 
of  my  text  :  "Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and 
stature."  The  latter,  of  course,  does  not  require  com- 
ment. It  is  the  statement  of  an  indisputable  and 
self-evident  fact ;  but  the  former  may  seem  to  present 
some  difficulty.  If  He  were  God,  how  could  He 
increase  in  wisdom  ?  Does  not  this  intimate  that,  in 
the  writer's  opinion,  He  was  only  Son  of  God  in  a 
more  or  less  figurative   sense  ?     Not  a  few  persons, 


I70  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

from  time  to  time,  have  urged  almost  passionately 
that,  if  any  saying  of  our  Lord's  can  be  quoted  as 
to  an  ancient  historical  event,  the  authorship  of  a 
book,  or  a  matter  of  science,  the  question  is  thereby 
ended,  and  that  any  hesitation  to  accept  this  settle- 
ment is  virtually  a  denial  of  His  Divinity.  It  appears 
to  me  that  those  who  thus  reason  lay  themselves 
open  to  the  charge  of  denying  the  reality  of  His 
humanity.  This  dilemma  appears  to  be  presented 
thus :  The  idea  of  God  implies  knowledge  without 
limit;  that  of  man  no  less  necessarily  involves,  not 
only  limited  knowledge,  but  also  that  which  is  gradu- 
ally gained  by  effort  and  experience.  If,  then,  Jesus 
knew,  as  by  an  innate  consciousness,  the  facts  of  past 
history  or  the  conclusions  of  science  for  all  centuries  to 
come,  the  Godhead  had  absorbed  the  manhood.  The 
assumption  of  human  nature  involves  a  conditioning 
of  the  Divine  nature — a  temporary  laying  aside  of 
some  of  its  attributes,  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  a 
diminution  of  its  perfections.  "  How  can  this  be  ?  " 
you  may  ask.  Obviously,  that  is  one  of  the  mysteries 
beyond  human  comprehension;  but  I  think  that  the 
order  of  Nature  affords  analogies  which  may  throw 
some  light  upon  it.  To  take  a  very  rough  illustration  : 
there  may  be  unity  of  substance  with  great  diversity 
of  accidents,   and    this    diversity    may    be    due    to 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  171 

differences  in  the  environment.  For  example,  carbonic 
anhydride  under  ordinary  circumstances  is  a  gas.  At 
a  certain  low  temperature  and  high  pressure  it  is  a 
solid.     Yet  its  chemical  composition  is  unaltered. 

Again,  without  going  into  a  long  discussion  con- 
cerning human  nature,  I  may  assume  that,  as  Chris- 
tians, you  will  admit  that  it  is  something  more  than 
a  merely  dynamical  condition  of  a  particular  group 
of  organisms — the  thinking,  feeling,  conscious  self  is 
something  more  than  the  sum-total  of  living  brain, 
heart,  and  other  organs.  I  am  conscious  of  myself; — 
that,  I  suppose,  constitutes  my  personality.  But  there 
are  many  things  relating  to  myself  which  I  have 
forgotten ;  yet  I  am  none  the  less  myself  Still  more, 
certain  faculties  may  be  lost  permanently,  if  there  be 
definite  injury  to  the  brain ;  or  temporarily,  if  it  be 
suffering  from  overstrain  or  from  the  consequences  of 
physical  exhaustion.  But  if,  as  the  result  of  over- 
work, I  should  ever  be  in  such  a  condition  that  I 
could  not  express  myself  clearly,  or  could  not  re- 
member ni}^  own  name  or  whither  I  was  going,  it 
would  not  be  said  that  I  had  lost  that  which  consti- 
tuted my  nature  and  personality  (whatever  it  be),  but 
only  that  its  operation  had  been  temporarily  or  per- 
manently impeded  by  the  defective  condition  of  certain 
organisms.     If,  then,  thought,  memory,  and  the  like. 


172  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS, 

in  an  ordinary  man,  cannot  be  exercised  unless  the 
brain  is  in  a  certain  condition  of  health,  is  it  un- 
reasonable to  suppose  that  this  organ  would  be 
incapable  of  discharging  the  functions  which  would 
be  demanded  of  it,  were  it  made  the  instrument  of 
omniscience  ?  In  many  things  we  require  not  only  a 
mode  of  energy,  but  also  a  certain  condition  of 
matter  to  bring  about  a  particular  result.  You  can- 
not transmit  electricity  with  a  wire  made  of  a  non- 
conducting material.  Moreover,  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  the  destruction  of  the  material  owing  to  its  very 
defects.  Yet  more,  our  perceptions,  and  thus  our 
knowledge  and  powers  of  thought,  are  conditioned  by 
our  organisms.  There  is  light  which  we  cannot  see, 
because  its  waves  awaken  in  us  no  responsive 
thrills ;  there  are  sounds  which  we  cannot  hear,  be- 
cause our  organs  of  hearing  do  not  vibrate  in  reply. 
Is  it,  then,  too  much  to  assert  that  there  are  exist- 
ences and  knowledge  to  which  the  mind,  conditioned 
by  the  limits  of  time  and  space,  must  be,  as  it 
were,  blind  and  deaf  ?  Nay,  inasmuch  as  in  certain 
cases  the  actions  of  the  nerves  and  the  brain  in  man 
are  temporarily  intensified,  but  this  condition  is 
ordinarily  followed  by  exhaustion  and  prostration, 
might  not  the  full  consciousness  of  and  communion 
with  the  Unseen  be  fatal  to  any  man,  perfect  as  his 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  173 

nature  might  be  ?     There  is  a  deep  truth  in  the  old 
belief,  that  no  man  can  see  God  and  live. 

Such  considerations,  then,  as  it  appears  to  me, 
indicate  that  we  may  hold  that,  as  the  Scripture 
itself  states,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  during  the  period 
of  His  life  on  earth,  was  not  omniscient.  Doubtless 
in  Him  dwelt  all  the  wisdom  which  would  coexist 
with  a  nature  free  from  sin  and  in  harmonious  per- 
fection ;  but  all  matters  of  ordinary  human  learning 
had,  I  doubt  not,  to  be  acquired  by  Him  as  by  any 
other  child  of  man.  Hence  we  do  not  dispute  His 
Divinity  when  we  say  that,  in  a  matter  where 
accuracy  was  of  no  moral  or  spiritual  importance, 
His  knowledge  may  have  only  represented  that 
current  at  the  time,  and  so  sometimes  may  have  been 
defective  or  even  erroneous. 

In  concluding  this  stage  of  my  subject,  I  will  only 
make  one  remark  of  a  practical  nature.  The  Lord 
Jesus,  by  His  life,  inculcated  the  duty  of  striving  to 
advance  in  wisdom  instead  of  being  contented  in 
-ignorance.  Obviously,  it  has  an  especial  lesson  for 
those  who  are  young ;  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  by 
any  of  us,  for  life  is  but  one  continuous  discipline 
and  schooling.  The  development  of  the  body  ceases 
at  a  comparatively  early  age,  but  that  of  the  mind  con- 
tinues for  many  more  years,  and  even  when  strength 


174  '^HE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

fails  and  memory  is  somewhat  weakened  there  are 
lessons  yet  to  be  learnt  of  patience  in  trial  and  of 
spiritual  insight.  Many  a  man  progresses  in  the 
highest  wisdom  and  in  heavenly  knowledge  until  that 
solemn  hour  when  "  the  night  cometh  when  no  man 
can  work."  There  is  no  doubt  a  learning  which  may 
be  useless,  and  a  study  which  may  be  only  weariness 
of  the  flesh — such  were  many  of  those  subtleties  of 
the  rabbinical  teachers  which  our  Lord,  during  the 
days  of  His  ministration,  put  aside  almost  with 
contempt ;  but  the  way  of  wisdom  is  the  path  of  duty, 
and  there  is  nothing  sacred,  nothing  sanctified,  in 
ignorance.  Two  Books  there  are  whereby  God  reveals 
Himself  to  man,  and  prepares  the  way  for  the  direct 
influence  of  Spirit  on  soul.  Neither  of  these,  as  we 
see  from  the  record  of  His  life,  did  Jesus  despise.  He 
learnt  a  lesson  from  the  lilies  of  the  field  and  the 
birds  of  the  air,  as  well  as  from  the  deeds  and  the 
sayings  of  olden  time.  What,  then,  God  hath  joined 
together,  let  not  man  put  asunder. 


THE   GROWTH    OF  JESUS  (No.  11.^ 

'•  And  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favour 
with  God  and  man." — St.  Luke  ii.  52. 

In  the  last  sermon  I  called  your  attention  to  the 
scanty  information  afforded  by  the  four  Evangelists 
concerning  the  early  days  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
pointed  out  that  the  very  defects  of  the  record  were  an 
indirect  proof  of  the  good  faith  of  the  writers.  I  also 
made  some  remarks  upon  the  first  clause  in  the  text : 
'*  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature."  It  is  my 
present  purpose  to  consider  the  second :  "  He  increased 
in  favour  with  God  and  man."  This  clause,  like  the 
former  one,  deals  with  two  relationships,  and  the 
members  exhibit  a  certain  parallelism.  Jesus  in- 
creased in  the  sight  of  man,  and  as  He  grew  He  found 
favour  in  the  eyes  of  man — He  increased  in  wisdom, 
that  is,  in  the  sphere  where  only  the  All-seeing  and 
All-knowing  can  judge  aright,  and  in  the  sight  of 
Him  also  He  was  well-pleasing. 

^  Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  on  the  Fourth  Sunday  after 
Epiphany,  1889. 

175 


176  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

"  Jesus   increased   in  favour   with  God  and   man." 
Let  us  consider  the  latter  part  first,  for  it  offers  the 
fewer   difficulties.     As   I   have  already  pointed   out, 
the   Evangelist,   in   this    statement,   contradicts    the 
authors  of  the  Apocryphal  Gospels.     The  former  also 
leads  us  to  infer,  and  St.  John,  who  passes  over  the 
earlier  history  of  Christ  in  silence,  virtually  affirms, 
that  He  did  no  miracle  before  the  beginning  of  His 
public   ministry.      But  according   to  the  Apocryphal 
Gospels,  even  during  His  infancy,  His  swaddling-clothes 
and  bath-water  possessed  miraculous  powers,  and  as  a 
Child  He  was  constantly  working  wonders — killing  and 
recalling  to  life,  changing  the  colour  of  clothes,  making- 
misfits  in  carpentry  come  right,  and  turning  images 
of  clay  into  living  birds.     From  these  authorities  also 
we  learn  that  He  by  no  means  increased  in  favour 
with   man.     We   read,  for  example,  in  the  Oospel  of 
Thomas,  "  [The  people]  went  and  reproached  Joseph, 
saying,  'It  is  impossible  for  thee  to  live  with  us  in 
this  city,  but  if  thou  wish  est  so  to  do,  teach  thy  Child 
to  bless  and  not  to  curse,  for  He  is  killing  our  children, 
and  whatsoever  He  says  is  certainly  accomplished ; '  " 
and  in  another  place,  "  Joseph  said  unto  the  Lady  Mary, 
From  this  time  we  shall  not  let  Him  go  out  of  the 
house,  since  every  one  who  opposes  Him  is  struck  dead.' "^ 
*  Gospel  of  TJwmas  (second  Greek  form),  ch.  iv. 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  177 

But  enough  of  these  worse  than  silly  legends.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  suggest  a  reason  for  the  silence  of  the 
Evangelists — that  it  was  because,  from  their  point  of 
view,  these  eighteen  years  afforded  nothing  which 
called  for  record.  To  outward  sight,  Jesus,  for  all  this 
time,  was  a  Child  among  children,  a  Youth  among 
youths,  a  Man  among  men.  That  in  which  He  differed 
from  others  would  only  be  perceived  by  those  who 
knew  Him  well.  It  might  be  summed  up  thus :  that 
He  always  appeared  to  think,  say,  and  do  exactly 
what  was  right,  and  never  what  was  wrong. 

The  few  words  which  I  have  quoted  may  have  been 
put  on  record  to  intimate  the  perfection  of  the  human 
nature  of  Christ.  Coming  in  such  close  connection 
with  the  return  to  Nazareth,  they  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  years  immediately  following  that  of  the 
visit  to  the  Temple  were  present  to  the  writer's  mind 
more  distinctly  than  others,  namely,  those  years  in 
ordinary  human  life,  which  not  only  are  fraught  with 
special  dangers,  but  also  are  exactly  those  in  which 
the  majority  of  youths  do  not  increase  in  favour  with 
man.  Jesus,  when  He  went  up  to  Jerusalem,  was 
twelve  years  of  age,  that  is  probably  about  as 
near  manhood  as  an  English  boy  a  couple  of  years 
older.  Now,  we  all  know  that,  as  a  rule,  boys  from 
about   fourteen  or   fifteen  to    seventeen   or   eighteen 

N 


178  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

are  not  easy  to  manage.  It  is  proverbially  "the 
difficult  age " — rightly  called  "  difficult/'  because  it 
does  not  necessarily  imply  that  it  is  always  the  boy 
who  is  in  fault.  He  is  in  a  state  of  transition,  changing 
rapidly  both  in  body  and  in  mind,  and  the  corporeal 
development  is  commonly  well  ahead  of  the  mental ; 
indeed,  the  rapidity  o-f  the  former  sometimes  disturbs 
the  equilibrium  o-f  the  latter.  Such  difficulty  is  espe- 
cially likely  to  arise  in  any  case  where  the  boy  possesses 
strong  individuality  of  character,  and  is  due  to  the  very 
qualities  which  will  ultimately  be  his  distinction.  It 
may  even  result  from  the  soundness  of  his  instincts 
and  the  honesty  of  his  disposition,  because  he  has 
not  yet  learnt  that  it  is  easy  to  make  mistakes,  and 
that  caution  and  reticence  may  sometimes  be  counted 
among  Christian  virtues.  Hence,  at  this  epoch,  as 
we  all  know,  friction  is  apt  to  arise  occasionally 
between  teachers  and  pupils,  between  parent  and 
child — with  the  best  intentions  on  either  side.  Yet 
at  this  one  also  Jesus  increased  in  favour  with  man. 

Compared  with  the  history  of  the  ministerial  life 
of  Christ,  this  statement  is  suggestive,  though  its 
lessons,  if  common,  are  melancholy. 

His  goodness  at  first  won  Him  favour  with  man. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  majority  of  man- 
kind, in    a    fairly   civilized    community,   have    any 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  179 

aversion  to  those  who  are  really  good.  It  is  those 
who  are  conceitedly  or  aggressively  righteous — those 
in  whom  the  existence  of  defects  produces  a  want 
of  harmony  in  the  character,  who  incur  dislike.  To 
''  approve  the  better  and  the  worse  pursue  "  expresses 
with  fair  accuracy  the  general  position  assumed  by 
the  multitude.  So  long,  indeed,  as  goodness  may  be 
called  passive  rather  than  active — that  is,  when  it 
finds  expression  in  a  narrow  rather  than  a  wide 
sphere,  in  domestic  life  rather  than  in  a  public  career, 
a  man  is  respected  and  liked  the  better  for  it.  Even 
a  knave,  I  believe,  prefers  to  do  business  with  a 
thoroughly  honest  man,  and  for  that  very  reason  will 
sometimes  abstain  from  cheating  him.  But  when  a 
sense  of  duty  and  right  compels  a  man  to  oppose  a 
dominant  current  of  feeling  or  strike  a  blow  at  some 
popular  idol,  then  unpopularity  must  be  risked,  and 
it  often  cannot  be  avoided,  though  the  wisdom  of  the 
serpent  be  combined  with  the  harmlessness  of  the 
dove.  It  would  be  no  wonder  if  Jesus  increased  in 
favour  with  men  so  long  as  He  was  living  quietly  in 
the  home  at  Nazareth.  Think  of  One  Who  added  to 
the  indefinable  charm  and  attractiveness  of  youth, 
perfect  unselfishness  and  universal  benevolence ;  Who 
to  the  tenderness  and  gentleness  of  a  woman  united 
the  best   strength  and  vigour   of  a  man ;  Who  was 


i8o  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

tolerant  of  weakness  and  forgiving  of  injury,  and 
yet  capable  of  righteous  indignation;  who,  in  a  word, 
was  the  embodied  ideal  of  human  nature; — such  a 
One  must  have  been  loved,  except,  perhaps,  by  some 
scribe  or  Pharisee,  whose  petty  notions  of  arbitrary 
proprieties  he  had  outraged;  for  these  men — and 
they  did  not  perish  with  the  downfall  of  the  Temple — 
are  most  prone  to  call  good,  evil,  and  are  most  bitter 
against  that  spirit  of  truth  and  right  which  will  not 
be  measured  with  their  tiny  rule  or  fettered  by  their 
fantastic  regulations. 

But  when  Jesus  began  His  mission  work,  when  He 
came  forth  as  a  Leader  of  men,  then  He  became  un- 
popular. At  first  only  with  the  legalists — with  the  so- 
called  religious  world.  He  proclaimed  a  reformation, 
and  met  with  a  reformer's  fate.  We  know  what  those 
must  expect  who  refuse  to  bow  before  time-honoured 
superstitions,  and  will  not  spare  "  the  hoary  head  of 
inveterate  abuse."  This  fate  Jesus  risked;  this  fate 
Jesus  met. 

His  popularity  with  the  people  at  large  lasted 
longer.  When  faith  is  dying,  and  creeds  are  becoming 
outworn,  the  champions  of  orthodoxy  are  not  always 
in  hio"h  favour  with  the  multitudes,  who  know  too 
well  their  foibles  and  their  faults,  who  have  worked 
themselves  near  enough  to  the  image,  carefully  though 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  i8i 

it  be  guarded,  to  see  that  it  is  not  made  of  gold,  but 
of  clay,  and  that  the  gilding  is  falling  off.  It  was  not 
till  Jesus  offended  the  national  sentiment,  by  pro- 
claiming that  His  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,  that 
He  could  find  no  place  for  a  policy  of  revolt,  and  in- 
dulged no  dreams  of  restoring  an  empire  like  to,  but 
yet  grander  than,  that  of  Solomon,  that  the  people 
turned  against  Him,  and  the  mob  of  Jerusalem  joined 
the  satellites  of  the  Temple  in  the  cry,  "  Crucify  Him  ! 
Crucify  Him  ! " 

But  we  are  also  told  that  "  Jesus  increased  in  favour 
with  God."  This  statement,  like  the  one  that  "  He 
increased  in  wisdom,"  appears  to  present  a  difficulty, 
and  that  a  graver  one.  To  increase  in  favour  with 
God  appears  to  assume  an  increase  in  goodness,  and, 
if  so,  how  could  Jesus  be  truly  Son  of  God  ?  Moral 
perfection,  at  first  sight,  does  not  appear  to  admit  of 
degree,  but  the  phrase  just  quoted  seems  to  imply  a 
progress  from  imperfection  towards  perfection.  I 
know  well  that  I  am  dealing  with  relationships  which 
are  incomprehensible  by  man.  Any  expression  re- 
lating to  them  must,  on  that  account,  be  regarded 
from  the  human  standpoint,  and  not  pressed  further 
than  it  will  bear.  But  I  think  that,  on  consideration, 
we  may  perceive  how  it  may  legitimately  be  employed 
without  any  diminution  of  the  true  Godhead  of  Christ. 


1 82  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

The  key-note  to  the  line  of  thought  which  I  would 
suggest — for  I  do  not  propose  to  do  more,  lest  I  weary 
you — is  struck  in  one  of  the  earlier  verses  in  the  first 
Book  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  "  Ye  shall  be  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil."  Perhaps  you  will  remark  that 
the  authority  for  the  statement  is  the  worst  possible  ; 
but  the  devil  may  speak  truth  when  he  wishes  to 
deceive.  In  other  words,  we  may  say  that  the  good- 
ness which  is  the  result  of  innocence  is  to  a  consider- 
able extent  of  a  negative  character,  while  that  which 
is  the  result  of  choice  is  positive.  To  give  a  homely 
illustration,  it  implies  no  moral  excellence  if  a  man 
who  cannot  write  has  never  committed  the  sin  of 
forgery.  Where  there  is  no  temptation,  either  because 
of  the  period  of  life  or  other  circumstance,  then  there 
is  no  victory  and  no  progress.  By  becoming  Man, 
Jesus  took  upon  Himself  to  tread  a  certain  path, 
every  step  of  which  was  in  an  onward  direction.  He 
was  tempted,  we  are  told,  like  as  we  are,  though  not 
by  an  innate  corruption — that  is  to  say,  there  was  at 
every  juncture  a  perfectly  free  and  unbiassed  choice 
between  the  one  and  the  other  course,  which  is  not 
the  case  with  those  born  after  the  manner  of  men. 
Sin  may  be  defined  in  general  terms  as  following  the 
merely  animal  instinct  when  it  is  in  conflict  with  a 
prompting  which  comes  from  a  higher  source.     It  is 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  183 

not,  as  a  rule,  in  the  act  itself,  but  in  the  motive  or 
the  occasion,  that  the  sin  resides.  An  act — such  as 
killing  a  man — is  with  one  motive  permissible  or 
even  laudable,  with  another  a  great  crime.  If  an 
infant,  when  hungry,  takes  up  and  eats  food  belong- 
ing to  another,  this  being  done  in  innocence  is  not 
sinful ;  but  it  will  be  in  a  few  years,  when  the  laws 
of  property  are  understood.  Then  it  is  known  to  be 
better  to  endure  hunger  for  a  while  than  to  appease 
it  unlawfully.  Thus  so  soon  as  ever  the  call  to  re- 
sist the  lower  nature  and  to  obey  the  higher  is  heard, 
however  faintly,  so  soon  as  a  person  is  able  to  see 
that  the  path  before  him  is  no  longer  a  single  one, 
but  is  parted  into  two  ways, — then  there  can  be  the 
beginning  of  sin.  To  ourselves,  as  we  all  know, 
these  opportunities  for  choice  are  afforded  through- 
out life.  At  what  epoch  they  begin,  we  are  unable  to 
say,  but  they  are  presented  with  exceptional  frequency 
during  the  years  when  childhood  is  ending  and  the 
transition  into  manhood  is  taking  place,  because  then 
both  the  faculties  of  the  body  and  the  circumstances 
of  life  are  most  rapidly  changing.  In  some  cases 
the  choice  between  the  right  and  the  wrong  path  is 
not  even  offered  until  the  person  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent is  conscious  of  its  nature  and  of  personal  respon- 
sibility.   But  with  each  victory  won  the  moral  nature 


I §4  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

is  strengthened  ;  so  that,  like  a  metal  which  has  been 
hardened  and  tempered  in  the  fire,  it  can  be  safely 
employed,  and  can  be  trusted  in  God's  service. 
Another  master  has  tried  to  lure  the  soul  away,  and 
it  has  deliberately  replied,  "  Get  thee  hence,  Satan  ! " 

Thus,  then,  it  must  have  been  with  Jesus.  He 
passed  without  a  blemish  from  the  sinless  Child  to  the 
sinless  Man ;  and  in  so  growing  He  progressed  from 
mere  innocency  to  actual  and  active  holiness.  In  so 
doing,  in  so  fulfilling  the  purpose  of  His  mission  and 
the  ideal,  hitherto  unattained,  of  humanity,  there  was 
a  perfectness  at  every  stage ;  but  there  was  also  an 
upward  progress  in  the  stages  themselves,  so  that  we 
cannot  refuse  to  say — nay,  if  we  understand  what 
goodness  really  is,  we  are  compelled  as  men  to  say — 
that  Jesus  increased  in  favour  with  God. 

Such  was  the  development  of  Christ.  Step  by  step 
He  won  His  way,  gathering  from  each  age  that  which 
it  afforded  of  good,  to  form  the  crown  of  perfect  man- 
hood which  was  to  be  offered  on  the  Cross  as  His  last 
and  greatest  gift  to  the  race,  which  He  did  not  disdain 
to  call  brothers.  Of  which  of  them,  of  which  of  us, 
can  the  same  be  said  ?  Whose  life  is  not  full  of  vain 
regrets  for  lost  opportunities  and  evil  actions,  for  sins 
of  omission  and  of  commission  ?  How  often  are  we 
obliged   to   confess   that   our   righteousness    is   only 


THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS.  185 

negative  ?  We  have  not  sinned,  because  from  circum- 
stance or  constitution  we  have  not  felt  the  temptation. 
How  often  must  we  admit  that,  even  if  we  cannot  be 
charged  with  doing  that  which  we  ought  not  to  have 
done,  we  have  left  undone  that  which  we  ought  to 
have  done ! 

We,  indeed,  forgetful  of  our  defects,  are  too  often 
tempted  to  echo  the  thanksgiving  of  the  Pharisee, 
"  God,  I  thank  Thee  that  I  am  not  as  other  men 
are — thieves,  fraudulent,  drunkards,  adulterers !  I 
have  kept  the  commandments,  and,  as  regards  the 
letter  of  the  Law,  am  blameless."  But  how  far  is  this 
due  to  yourself,  and  how  far  to  circumstances  ?  You 
were  shielded  from  temptation  when  young ;  you 
have  never  known  poverty  or  want ;  you  have  always 
had  little  to  gain  and  much  to  lose  by  committing  a 
crime.  If  you  are  free  from  great  sins,  thank  God's 
grace,  not  yourself.  Nay,  if  you  liave  kept  the  letter 
of  the  Law,  are  you  so  sure  you  have  kept  the  spirit  ? 
If  you  have  not  robbed  your  neighbour  of  money, 
have  you  never  by  skilful  misrepresentation  or  in- 
nuendo taken  away  his  good  name  ?  Have  you  never 
contrived  to  slip  before  him,  or  even  gracefully  to 
trip  him  up  in  the  race  of  life  ?  Have  you  always 
cared  more  for  truth  than  for  your  own  advantage  ? 
Have  you  always  replied,  "  Vade  retro,  Satanas  ! "  when 


1 86  THE   GROWTH  OF  JESUS. 

he  has  said  of  this  world's  advantao-es,  "All  these 
will  I  give  thee  if  thou  wilt  do  homage  to  me  "  ?  Nay, 
when  you  contemplate  yourself,  your  successes  and 
your  prosperity,  do  you  never  yield  to  the  temptation 
of  exclaiming,  with  the  Chaldean  king,  "  Is  not  this 
great  Babylon,  that  I  have  built  ?  "  Take  care,  O  self- 
confident  one,  lest  God  lay  thee  low,  even  as  that  king 
who  was  brought  to  grovel  among  the  beasts  of  the 
field.  Yet,  better  that  our  Father  should  so  deal  with 
us  than  that  we  should  go  to  the  grave  in  a  fool's 
paradise.  But  if  we  would  desire  a  gentler  awaken- 
ing from  vain  illusions,  we  shall  find  none  more 
effective  than  by  keeping  ever  before  our  eyes  the 
one  Ideal  of  perfect  manhood,  Who,  and  Who  alone, 
from  the  cradle  to  the  Cross,  so  lived  as  to  increase  in 
wisdom  and  in  favour  with  God. 


THE    GOSPEL   OF   ST.  PAUL.^ 

"  If  in  this  life  only  we  have  hoped  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all 
men  most  pitiable." — 1  Cor.  xv.  19  (R.  V.). 

Some  critics  assert  that  St.  Paul  is  an  obscure  writer ; 
but  his  meaning  here  is  plain  enough.  In  brief 
emphatic  phrases,  clause  by  clause,  he  leads  to  this 
conclusion,  "  If  Christ  hath  not  been  raised,  your  faith 
is  vain;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins."  Some  eighteen 
centuries  since,  in  the  infancy  of  the  Christian  Church, 
the  Resurrection  of  Christ  was  a  difficulty  to  the 
Greek,  whether  trained  in  the  philosophy  of  Athens 
or  engrossed  in  the  commerce  of  Corinth,_no  less  than 
His  Cross  was  a  stumbling  block  to  the  Jew.  What 
Paul  had  taught  as  historical  facts,  some  converts 
sought  to  explain  away  as  misconceptions  or  allegories. 

In    this    age,    in    this    land,    above    all    in    this 

metropolis,   where   the   culture   of  Athens   combines 

with  the  luxury  of  Corinth,  the  same  difficulty  is  felt, 

the  same  disposition  exists. 

^  Preached    in  "Westminster  Abbey  on  the  third    Sunday    after 
Trinity,  1888. 

187 


1 88  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

It  is  not  surprising  ;  scientific  progress  has  dispellea 
many  an  error,  has  increased  and  deepened  our  know- 
ledge of  the  order  of  Nature,  and  has  thus  rendered 
men  suspicious  of  what  they  call  the  miraculous 
element  in  a  story.  It  is  no  marvel ;  the  Church  has 
fostered  credulity  ;  she  has  now  to  struggle  with  un- 
belief Reaction  is  the  penalty  of  excess;  this  is  a 
law  of  Nature,  which  even  now  Christians  would  do 
well  to  remember. 

Thus  not  a  few,  at  the  present  time,  are  offended 
by  the  Christ  in  Whom  Paul  believed.  They 
dwell  upon  the  .  improbability  of  the  story,  the 
fallibility  of  testimony,  the  proneness  to  illusion 
among  a  band  of  enthusiasts  ;  they  insist  that  neither 
the  great  fact  of  the  love  of  God  nor  the  moral  beauty 
of  Christianity  are  dependent  upon  the  Pauline 
version  of  the  Gospel  story.  Had  that  ended  with 
the  Cross  of  Calvary,  the  lesson  of  self-sacrifice,  the 
example  of  boundless  charity,  would  be  not  less, 
perhaps  even  more,  impressive,  and  the  love  of  Christ 
have  been  no  less  attractive  had  it  been  shown  by  a 
man  to  men.  Love,  righteousness,  goodness,  we  are 
reminded,  do  not  depend  upon  the  attributes  with 
which  some  excitable  Galileans  invested  a  leader  of 
exceptional  moral  qualities.  The  outward  form  of 
Christianity  is  a  mere  husk,  which,  if  it  has  sometimes 


THE   GOSPEL    OF  ST.   PAUL.  189 

protected,   has   more   often    concealed    the    spiritual 
kernel. 

With  this  form  of  teaching  St.  Paul  would  have  no 
compromise.  He  tells  his  disciples  in  so  many  words, 
"  If  I  am  deceived,  and  have  deceived  you,  ours  is 
indeed  a  pitiful  lot."  Persecuted  by  the  heathen, 
excommunicate  by  the  Jews,  we  have  become  like 
outcast  dogs,  at  whom  any  one  may  cast  a  stone,  and 
all  for  an  illusion.  We  have  chosen — poor  fools  that 
we  are — a  life  of  misery,  which  will  be  followed 
by  an  awakening,  if  there  be  one  at  all,  of  dis- 
appointment. 

As  I  said,  we  are  once  more  face  to  face  with  the 
old  difficulties.  We  have  to  choose  between  a  Christ 
purely  human,  and  a  Christ  Who  is  much  more  than 
man.  Which  is  to  be  our  guide  through  the  breakers 
ahead  ?  For  breakers  there  are.  If,  indeed,  we  live  in 
an  age  when  knowledge  "  grows  from  more  to  more," 
when  each  height  attained  by  the  toiler  in  science 
does  but  open  a  wider  prospect,  a  grander  panorama 
of  new  lands  to  conquer,  it  is  also  one  full  of  dark 
and  saddening  problems — at  once  an  age  of  advance- 
ment and  an  age  of  degeneration.  Our  land,  and  not 
our  land  only,  is  like  a  seething  pot,  wherein  bubble 
up  all  that  is  noble  and  all  that  is  base;  wherein 
Avisdom  and  folly,  good  and  evil,  virtue  and  sin,  seem 


I90  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  PAUL. 

to  leap  and  eddy  in  such  bewildering  confusion  that 
no  man  can  foretell  the  end,  and  it  must  be  left  to 
our  grandchildren  to  write  the  verdict  on  this 
generation. 

In  creeds  and  teachers  a  like  antithesis  is  found. 
These  bid  us  take  refuge  with  an  infallible  leader, 
or  at  least  submit  to  directors  who  claim,  whether 
officially  or  personally,  some  supernatural  powers. 
Those  declare  that  the  order  of  Nature  is  the  only  fact, 
that  the  intuitions  of  the  soul  are  the  only  safe  guide. 
At  the  one  extreme  man  claims  the  power  of  God  ; 
at  the  other,  man  almost  asserts  there  is  no  God. 

It  is  not  likely  that  any  here  are  prepared  to  go  to 
the  latter  extreme,  but  many  doubt  at  the  present 
day  whether  Christianity,  for  all  the  centuries  past, 
has  not  been  resting  upon  an  invalid  foundation,  and 
whether  it  be  not  the  imperative  duty  of  all  thought- 
ful men  in  this  nineteenth  century  "  to  reconceive  the 
Christ."  "  To  reconceive  the  Christ !  "  ^  Yes,  I  grant 
that  in  some  sense  this  is  necessary.  The  Christ  of 
dogmatic  anathemas,  the  Christ  of  hatred  and  variance, 
the  Christ  of  cruel  persecutions,  the  Christ  too  often 
of  Churches, — He,  it  is  true,  was  not  the  Christ  of 

^  This  sermon  was  written  after  reading  the  well-known  novel 
Robert  Elsmere,  and  the  above  phrase,  with  some  others,  is  quoted  from 
its  pages. 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  PAUL.  191 

Calvary.  Of  that  Christ  our  conceptions,  even  at  best, 
are  too  often  grievously  inadequate,  warped  by  the 
imperfections  of  our  nature  and  the  influences  of  our 
education ;  but  "  to  reconceive  the  Christ,"  so  as  to 
transform  Him  from  the  Incarnate  Lord  and  the  Risen 
Saviour  to  a  mere  man,  though  the  noblest,  purest, 
best,  of  the  race, — is  that  the  duty  which  is  before  us  ? 
We  may  well  undertake  the  investigation  with  no 
light  heart. 

Now,  as  a  preliminary  to  the  few  remarks  which 
I  wish  to  make  on  this  topic,  let  me  call  attention  to 
one  or  two  points  which,  as  it  seems  to  me,  are  often 
left  in  considerable  ambiguity  by  advocates  of  the 
new  gospel. 

First,  there  is  no  reasonable  ground  for  doubting 
that  this  Epistle,  with  that  to  the  Romans  and  one  or 
two  more,  were  written  by  St.  Paul.  Personally,  I 
think  others  were,  but  as  their  authenticity  has  been 
disputed  I  will  not  claim  them.  Here,  then,  is  a 
letter,  dating  from  about  twenty-seven  years  after  the 
supposed  Resurrection  of  Christ,  and  written  by  the 
man  who  did  more  than  any  other  to  spread  the  story 
of  the  Gospel.  On  its  truth  he  stakes  his  hopes  and 
his  credit. 

Again,  this  story  in  its  main  outlines  corresponds 
with  that  which  we  read  in  the  other  books  of  the 


192  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

New  Testament.  I  am  not  going  to  assert — because 
that  could  not  be  placed  beyond  dispute — that  the 
Four  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  are  really 
the  works  of  their  reputed  authors  ;  but  I  do  say  that 
they  either  are  documents  of  the  Apostolic  age,  or 
relate  a  history  which  in  its  main  outlines  is  iden- 
tical with  that  believed  by  the  Church  of  the  first 
century. 

Apart  from  collateral  proofs,  the  latter  assertion  is 
really  incontestable,  if  we  allow  that  Paul  wrote  the 
Epistles  which  I  have  named,  because  in  them  the 
Divine  nature  and  the  Resurrection,  to  mention  no 
other  important  incidents,  are  insisted  on  with 
much  detail.  It  has  been  insinuated,  I  know,  that 
the  Christ  of  Christendom  is  largely  a  creature  of 
Paul's  fervid  imagination,  and  that  the  testimony 
of  James  of  Jerusalem,  could  we  only  recover  it, 
would  be  something  very  different  from  that  of 
Paul  of  Tarsus.  But  the  latter  tells  us,  in  one  of 
these  accepted  Epistles,  that  both  preached  the  same 
Gospel.^  This  rests,  no  doubt,  only  on  St.  Paul's 
authority;  but,  judging  from  the  facts  of  his  life  and 
the  internal  evidence  of  his  writings,  I  should  say 
that  he  was  an  honest  and  truthful  man  ;  indeed,  I 
may  even  venture    to    assert   that    he    would    have 

1   Gal.  ii.  2-10;  cf.  i.  8,9. 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   PAUL.  193 

regarded  a  pious  fraud  or  a  lie  to  serve  a  policy  with 
much  more  scorn  and  loathing  than  some  people 
appear  to  do  at  the  present  time. 

But  we  are  now  sometimes  informed  that  Paul  was 
"  so  weak  logically,  so  strong  in  poetry,  in  rhetoric,  in 
moral  passion,"  that  he  is  useless  as  a  witness.  If, 
however,  others  corroborate  his  t-estimony,  his  personal 
disqualifications  are  of  less  moment,  for  certainly 
some  of  his  fellow-workers  were  men  of  a  very 
different  temperament.  But  of  them,  I  may  be  told, 
we  know  nothing,  for  it  is  denied  that  the  Gospels  are 
contemporary  documents  or  give  us  a  true  picture  of 
the  birth  of  Christianity.  Well,  if  they  are  religious 
romances,  they  belong,  as  I  have  just  said,  to  a  very 
early  period.  We  are  now  sometimes  advised  to  read 
them  in  a  scientific  spirit.  I  wish  that  men  would 
read  them  in  a  more  scientific  spirit — that  is,  would 
take  the  trouble  to  compare  them  with  some  samples 
of  the  mass  of  literature,  whether  biographical  or 
romantic,  whether  allegorical  or  devotional,  which 
still  exists  and  dates  from  the  centuries  immediately 
preceding  or  succeeding  the  birth  of  Christ.  At  what 
time  or  place  will  you  find  other  men  ennobled  by 
such  soul-piercing  thoughts  or  possessed  of  such 
dramatic  skill  as  authors  of  religious  fiction  ?  Victims 
of  a  strange  delusion  the  first  disciples  may  have 
o 


194  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  PAUL, 

been,  but  what  gave  these  comparatively  uneducated 
men  the  power  to  rise  so  high  above  the  general  level 
of  the  religious  ideas  of  their  time,  or  to  fabricate 
a  story  which,  if  you  once  admit  the  possibility  of  the 
events,  is  so  marvellously  self-consistent  and  so  truth- 
ful in  appearance  ? 

Further,  is  there  any  real  ground  for  this  censure 

so  glibly   passed  upon    St.    Paul  ?     I  grant  that  his 

method  of  thought  was  influenced  by  his  personality. 

He  was  a  native  of  the  East,  not  of  the  west ;  he  lived 

in  the  first,  not  in  the  nineteenth,  century.     I  grant 

that  he  was  somewhat  discursive,  and  prone,  probably 

as  a  result  of  his  education,  to  dwell  more  on  verbal 

subtleties  and  coincidences  than  harmonizes  with  the 

modes  of  thought  to  which  we  are  accustomed.      I 

grant,  in  short,  that  he  was  a  man  of  another  age  and 

another   land   than   this.     But,  then,  I  ask,  Was  he 

nothing  more  ?     Certainly  he  was  neither  mob  orator 

nor  revival  preacher,  in  the  derogatory  sense  of  these 

words.    He  was  very  different,  with  all  his  enthusiasm, 

from  the  founders  of  the  Jesuit  or  Franciscan  Orders. 

He  has  sketched  out  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans 

a  philosophy  of  human  nature,  which  to  many  has 

seemed  at  least  worthy  of  careful  consideration.     I 

will  even  venture  to  say  that  if  ever  that  hypothesis 

as  to  the  descent  of  man,  which  is  now  in  favour  with 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  PAUL.  195 

some  scientific  workers,  should  be  demonstrated,  we 
shall  find  in  St.  Paul's  writings  a  solution  of  the 
difficulties  which  obviously  would  arise,  and  a  means 
of  harmonizing  the  results  of  scientific  discovery 
with  the  truths  of  Christianity.  Poet  and  orator  Paul 
may  have  been,  but  he  was  something  more.  A 
thinker  far  more  profound  than  most  of  his  censors. 

But  when  we  have  thus  cleared  the  ground — when 
we  have  placed  it  beyond  question  that  the  Gospel 
story  expresses  the  deliberate  belief  of  a  number  of 
men,  who  certainly  were  not  knaves  and  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  fools — then  we  are  told  that  we 
must  put  Paul,  we  must  put  the  companions  of  Jesus, 
out  of  court  as  witnesses,  because  "  miracles  do  not 
happen." 

Perhaps,  in  a  certain  sense,  they  do  not — of  that  we 
will  presently  speak ;  but,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of 
the  phrase,  is  the  position  thus  assumed  free  from 
difficulties — I  might  almost  say,  from  inconsistency  ? 
Those  who  occupy  it  accept  the  main  outlines  of  the 
Gospel  story,  after  eliminating  or  softening  down  the 
miraculous ,  incidents,  which,  as  they  conceive,  have 
been  imported  into  the  simple  and  pathetic  tale  by 
the  fervid  imagination  and  credulous  superstition  of 
the  age.  But,  if  that  be  so,  how  are  we  to  explain  the 
Christ,  Who   towers   in   unique    pre-eminence,  as  all 


196  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

admit,  high  above  the  dull  level  of  His  epoch  ?  What 
influences,  what  environment,  were  there  in  Judsea,  or 
even  in  the  then  civilized  world,  adequate  to  produce 
a  character  of  such  moral  grandeur,  a  soul  with  such 
spiritual  insight  ?  I  grant,  indeed,  that  there  were  fore- 
runners— "  morning  stars  "  of  the  coming  orb  of  light ; 
I  grant  that  the  thoughts  of  these  were  gathered  as  it 
were  into  one  focus  by  the  new  Teacher.  But  could 
the  moral  deadness  of  the  Sadducee  or  the  spiritual 
ossification  of  the  Pharisee  produce  Him?  Was  He 
the  Deliverer  for  whom  any  rank  of  society  was  look- 
ing ?  All  these  might  have  given  birth  to  a  leader  of 
revolt,  either  religious  or  political  \  while  He  came  not 
to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil — to  disappoint  alike  zealot  and 
patriot.  If  the  man  is  the  result  of  the  joint  action 
of  hereditary  tendencies  and  surrounding  influences, 
how  can  we  explain  this  abnormal  phenomenon  ? 
Jesus  Himself,  as  a  Man  of  that  age,  was  a  living 
miracle. 

Again,  accepting  the  narrative  as  above  stated,  how 
shall  we  explain  the  sudden  transformation  of  His 
imperfectly  educated  and  half-hearted  followers  into 
men  "full  of  the  Spirit"  and  earnest  in  their  belief? 
Surely  the  blood-stained  Cross  could  be  no  emblem 
of  hope  ?  The  knowledge  that  *'  the  ashes  of  Jesus 
mingled  with  the  dust  of  Palestine  "  would  have  been 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   PAUL.  I97 

the  despairing  epitaph  of  a  lost  cause.  Scorned  and 
reviled,  He  had  died  in  the  sight  of  the  multitude  ; 
claims  and  predictions  alike  falsified ;  and  yet  crush- 
ing defeat  converts  these  timid  disciples  into  men  of 
high  resolve  and  unshaken  courage.  There  is  no 
time,  mark  you,  for  the  slow  growth  of  a  seductive 
myth  which  might  at  last  acquire  such  power  as  to 
exercise  a  transforming  influence.  In  a  few  days — 
that  we  learn  from  St.  Paul's  genuine  writings — the 
belief  in  a  Divine  and  Risen  Saviour  had  become  part 
of  the  lives  of  these  men,  so  unpromising  as  subjects, 
so  different  in  their  dispositions.  If  there  were 
no  Resurrection,  is  not  this  a  miracle,  for  it  is 
inexplicable  ? 

Further,  in  St.  Paul's  own  case,  the  change,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  is  strange  and  startling.  He  knew  the 
moral  beauty  of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus,  he  was  aware 
of  the  new-born  zeal  of  the  Apostles  while  he  strove 
to  crush  by  persecution  this  revolt  against  ancient 
faiths.  So  sudden  a  conversion,  on  the  part  of  a 
thoughtful  man,  as  that  which  occurred,  is  at  any 
rate  difiicult  to  explain.  One  explanation  has  been 
hinted;  but,  looking  at  the  question  as  a  matter  of 
evidence,  it  seems  to  me  inadmissible,  for  St.  Paul's 
subsequent  writings  are  not  like  those  which  usually 
emanate  from  men  with  a  craze. 


198  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

But,  I  shall  be  told,  these  and  other  considerations 
are  idle.  The  story  is  incredible,  because  "miracles 
do  not  happen."  They  are  simply  the  outcome  of 
human  credulity,  always  prone  to  indulge  in  the 
marvellous.  That,  we  are  told,  is  proved  by  the  study 
of  the  history  of  religions;  they  exhibit  a  gradual 
progress  from  the  grossest  superstition  and  the  most 
abject  credulity  to  more  refined  and  more  spiritual 
forms.  I  may  grant  all  this,  without  admitting  more 
than  the  education  of  the  human  race  and  the  progress 
of  a  Divine  order,  in  which  many  of  the  critics  to 
whom  I  allude  believe  no  less  fervently  than  my- 
self I  admit  also  the  tendency  to  see  a  miracle  in 
everything  unexpected,  and  the  extreme  credulity 
which  often  accompanies  religious  earnestness. 
Traces  of  this  may  possibly  be  found  in  books  which 
we  regard  as  part  of  the  Canon  of  Scripture.  But  if 
exaggeration  or  possible  inaccuracy  in  detail  is  to  be 
an  absolute  bar  to  belief,  I  should  be  a  victim  to 
historic  doubt  after  a  few  weeks'  extensive  study  of 
the  current  newspapers,  and  end  in  believing  nothing 
which  I  had  not  seen. 

But  let  us  look  at  the  matter  from  another  point  of 
Adew.  Do  you  believe  that  /or  yourself  and  others 
there  is  a  possibility  of  an  eternal  life — that  it  is  not 
the  doom  of  ardent  and  earnest  seekers  after  God  to 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   PAUL.  199 

vanish  like  the  morning  mist  from  the  universe  of  His 
creatures  ?  My  friend,  if  you  have  this  life,  how  came 
it,  whence  came  it  ?  You  will  ask  that  question  in 
vain  of  science.  It  can  only  tell  us  that  for  man  and 
beast  alike  there  seems  to  be  but  one  life,  and  there 
is  no  reason  why  this  should  survive  the  dissolution 
of  the  organism.  A  "living  soul"  is  no  part  of  the 
order  of  Nature  as  we  know  it  from  scientific  research. 
If  you  believe  in  the  soul's  existence,  you  must  regard 
it  apart  from  animal  life,  and  obtain  j^our  assurance 
from  other  sources  than  those  which  are  furnished  by 
the  laboratory.  In  a  word,  if  you  believe  in  a  personal 
immortality  you  believe  in  a  miracle. 

Still,  some  may  reply,  when  pressed  by  this  argu- 
ment, "  Though  we  believe  in  God  as  Creator,  Ruler, 
Sustainer  of  this  world,  as  in  very  truth  Father  of  all, 
we  cannot  believe  in  the  Incarnation  and  the  Resurrec- 
tion, because  both  are  contrary  to  the  order  of  Nature, 
which  is  His  order,  and  He  cannot  contradict  Him- 
self." I  have  so  often  dwelt  upon  this  topic  that,  im- 
portant though  it  be,  I  shall  take  leave  now  to  dismiss 
it  in  very  few  words.  The  difficulty  has  no  real  exist- 
ence, and  is  created  by  our  incautious  use  of  words. 
The  "  order  of  Nature  "  simply  represents  the  results  of 
observation  and  of  inductive  reasoning  at  this  time. 
Our  conception  of  it  differs  from  that  of  our  ancestors. 


200  THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.   PAUL. 

and  that  of  our  posterity  will  differ  from  our  own. 
To  admit  that  its  laws  are  invariable,  and  to  claim 
a  complete  comprehension  of  them,  are  two  very 
different  things.  What  appears  in  one  age  to  be  a 
miracle,  because  it  is  contrary  to  the  experience  of 
the  day,  may  in  another  prove  to  be  in  accordance 
with  the  order  of  Nature.  In  a  word,  our  concep- 
tion of  a  miracle  is  an  imperfect  one,  due  to  our 
anthropomorphic  ideas  and  our  regarding  the  All- Wise 
and  All-Perfect  as  if  He  were  a  man  who  has  to  alter 
his  plans,  and,  as  we  call  it,  interfere  with  their  working. 
There  is  no  need  that  a  miracle  should  be  a  departure 
from  law — that  is,  from  the  Divine  purpose  and  plan. 
The  causes  seem  the  same  to  us  as  in  some  everyday 
event,  but  it  is  a  bold  assumption  to  say  that  they  are 
the  same.  Are  not  the  phenomena  of  life  miraculous 
when  viewed  restrictedly  from  the  standpoint  of 
physical  science  ?  The  tissues  of  your  bodies  continue 
because  you  are  alive,  and  you  can  give  no  better 
reason;  they  will  quickly  decompose  when  you  are 
dead.  Please  explain  this  before  you  begin  to  be 
too  confident  about  the  order  of  Nature  and  the 
impossibility  of  so-called  miracles. 

Thus  there  is  no  a  priori  impossibility  in  the 
matter — the  question  is  one  of  evidence ;  but  this  must 
be  viewed  in  the  widest  sense,  so  as  to  include  the 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  ST.  PAUL.  201 

position  of  the  event  in  the  economy  of  the  world. 
Here,  then,  the  genesis  of  the  idea  of  the  Risen  Saviour 
appears  to  me  incredible,  unless  He  were  a  Being 
absolutely  unique.  Who  by  His  birth,  life,  and  re- 
surrection was  the  crown  of  the  revelation  of  God  to 
man,  the  satisfaction  of  a  longing  hope,  the  earnest 
of  the  victory  over  sin  and  death.  A  Christianity 
without  a  Christ  is  at  least  as  incredible  as  a  Divine 
Christ. 

How,  then,  shall  we  confront  the  days  that  are 
coming  ?  How  seek  to  turn  their  darkness  into  light  ? 
In  the  days  of  old,  the  noblest  philosophy  of  the 
Gentile,  the  partial  knowledge  of  the  Jew,  had  alike 
been  tried  and  found  wanting.  Amid  the  luxury  of 
Corinth,  the  learning  of  Athens,  the  rottenness  of 
Rome,  Paul  preaches  Jesus  Son  of  man,  and  Jesus  Son 
of  God — the  Cross  and  the  Resurrection.  The  problems 
are  still  the  same,  the  remedy  is  still  the  same.  Com- 
passed by  temptations,  borne  down  by  sorrows,  man 
needs  the  help  of  man,  but  of  something  more  than 
man.  Looking  on  the  grim  fact  of  death,  into  the 
dark  uncertainty  of  the  hereafter,  his  faith — scorn  its 
weakness  if  you  will,  it  has  to  be  reckoned  with — his 
faith  needs  the  assurance  of  one  traveller  returned 
from  that  bourne,  or  he  will  not  quit  the  realities  of 
the  present  for  the  chances  of  a  future  of  which  you 


202  THE    GOSPEL    OF  ST.   PAUL. 

can  give  him  no  certainty.  Dark  indeed  is  the  path 
of  life,  with  all  its  sad  realities,  unless  it  be  illumined 
with  the  light  that  shone'  from  the  Easter  sepulchre ; 
sad  the  toil  that  a  stern  necessity  has  imposed  upon 
us,  unless  we  can  hope  for  the  rest,  not  of  eternal 
sleep,  but  of  the  redeemed  sons  of  God.  Christianity, 
you  say,  has  failed.  No,  it  is  not  Christianity  that 
has  failed,  but  man's  parody  of  it.  Let  Christ  be 
preached,  as  by  the  mouth  of  Paul,  and  once  more, 
amonof  all  the  difficulties  of  this  or  of  cominof  aofes, 
man  will  with  Christ  die  unto  sin  and  rise  unto 
righteousness. 


THE   DEMONIACS   OF   GADARA.^ 

"  So  the  devils  besought  Him,  saying,  If  Thou  east  us  out, 
suflfer  us  to  go  away  into  the  herd  of  swine." 

St.  Matt.  vni.  31. 

Christians  in  this  age  of  the  world  are  often 
challenged  to  the  wager  of  battle,  as  it  was  called 
in  olden  time.^  We  are  asked  to  narrow  the  great 
question,  whether  Christianity  be  a  substantial  truth 
or  a  fond  illusion,  to  some  single  issue,  and  stake  our 
faith  upon  the  result  of  a  particular  controversy. 
The  conciseness  of  this  process  renders  it  very  attrac- 
tive to  many  minds,  especially  those  of  an  aggressive 
habit.  To  attack  is  always  easier  than  to  defend. 
It  also  evokes  more  sympathy,  for  there  is  something 
attractive  in  the  noise  of  breaking  glass,  so  that  most 
of  us  have  a  certain  liking  for  the  thrower  of  stones, 

1  Preached  at  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  on  the  First  Sunday  in 
Lent,  1889. 

2  This  sermon  was  suggested  by  an  article  from  the  pen  of  Professor 
Huxley,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  xxv.  p.  169,  the  words  of  which 
are  occasionally  quoted.  There  were  replies  to  it  by  the  Bishop  of 
Peterborough  and  Dr.  Wace  (see  pp.  351,  369),  and  the  controversy  was 
continued. 


204  THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA. 

provided,  of  course,  that  they  are  aimed  at  another 
person's  windows. 

The   attack,   no   doubt,   would    be    both   fair   and 
formidable  if  the  Church  of  England  as  a  body  were 
committed   to  certain  views  of  inspiration  of  which 
I  have  lately  spoken — views  undoubtedly  held,  once 
very  generally,  and  still  rather  commonly,  by  its  indi- 
vidual members — namely,  that,  allowing  for  certain 
possible  textual  imperfections.  Scripture   cannot   err 
on  a  matter  of  science  or  history.     But  inasmuch  as 
the  Church  of  England,  with  singular  wisdom,  in  my 
opinion,   has   abstained  from   committing   herself   to 
any  definition  of  inspiration  or  precise  statement  of 
its  province — inasmuch  as  I  do  not  myself  hold  any 
such   views — I   venture    to   claim   the    right   of  the 
challenged   person,  and   decline  the   conflict   on   my 
adversary's  conditions.     My  belief  in  Christianity — I 
mean  New   Testament   Christianity,  not  that  which 
often  passes  current  for  it — is  not  grounded  upon  a 
single  fact  or  the  result  of  any  single  induction.     The 
conclusions   are   reached,  making   due  allowance  for 
the  very  important  differences,  by  processes  similar 
to  those  which  I  have  employed  in  my  special  depart- 
ment of  science.     Here  I  have  arrived  at  convictions 
on  the  substantial  accuracy  of  which  I  am  content  to 
rest  the  conduct  of  my  work  ;  yet  I  would  not  accept 


THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA.  205 

a  challenge  to  give  up  my  general  theories,  if  I  were 
defeated  upon  some  particular  issue,  which  had  been 
selected  by  an  adversary.  Issues,  doubtless,  there  are 
which  would  be  fatal,  and  the  same  is  true  of  Chris- 
tianity. In  regard  to  it,  for  instance,  if  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  Christ  be  an  illusion,  then  I  have  no  more  to 
say ;  Christianity  might  still  be  an  admirable  scheme 
of  morality,  and  a  great  force  tending  to  righteous- 
ness, but  the  feature  would  have  disappeared  which 
had  hitherto  distinguished  it  from  all  other  religious 
and  all  other  ethical  systems.  So  I  prefer  to  reason  in 
a  like  way  in  all  cases  where  direct  experimental 
proof  is  not  possible,  and  I  am  not  going — to  put  the 
matter  in  plain  words — to  be  abashed  into  accepting 
conditions  on  a  Sunday  which  I  should  refuse  without 
a  blush  on  a  Monday. 

Quite  lately  we  have  been  challenged  to  fight  on 
the  issue  of  the  reality  of  such  a  thing  as  the  so- 
called  demoniacal  possession,  and  particularly  on  the 
incident  from  the  account  of  which  my  text  is  taken. 
I  should  like,  in  regard  to  this,  to  indicate,  so  far  as 
may  be  in  a  few  words,  the  reason  why — though,  I 
hope,  a  fairly  honest  man  of  science — I  do  not  feel 
bound  to  become  an  agnostic. 

Before  dealing  with  certain  details  in  the  incident, 
I  will   notice   one   general   objection,  which  was   so 


2o6  THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA. 

worded  as  to  cause  me  a  little  surprise.  The  de- 
struction of  the  swine  is  thus  severely  censured  by 
the  critic:  "Everything  I  know  of  law  and  justice 
convinces  me  that  the  wanton  destruction  of  other 
people's  property  is  a  misdemeanour  of  evil  example." 
As  a  general  remark  this  is  perfectly  true,  and  as  I  do 
not  suppose  that  the  writer  is  much  infected  with  the 
flabby  sentimentality  which  is  so  prevalent  at  this 
epoch  of  our  national  history,  I  think  we  should  very 
probably  agree  that  in  many  cases  the  destruction  of 
other  people's  property,  so  far  from  being  a  misde- 
meanour of  evil  example,  was  a  necessity  and  a  duty, 
as  the  only  way  of  appealing  to  their  feelings,  and 
stopping  them  from  being  a  curse  to  the  world ;  but 
the  insertion  of  the  epithet  "  wanton  "  seems  to  me  to 
be  a  quiet  begging  of  an  open  question.  How  do  we 
know  that  the  destruction  was  wanton,  i.e.  not  puni- 
tive ?  If  the  inhabitants  of  Gadara  were  Jews,  the 
keeping  of  swine  was  an  outrage  on  the  law  which  at 
that  time  was  their  standard  of  right  and  wrong.  I 
do  not  assert  that  they  were  Jews,  because,  as  the 
place  was  east  of  Jordan,  this  is  uncertain,  but  we 
must  make  due  allowance  for  the  fact,  which  at  any 
rate  is  remarkable,  that  the  incident,  though  so 
different  from  the  ordinary  procedure  and  teaching 
of  the  Saviour,  does  not  appear,  to  any  one  of  the 


THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA.  207 

narrators,  to  call  for  explanation  or  defence.  As  any 
act  of  wanton  destruction  was  wholly  unlike  what  we 
know  of  the  Saviour's  usual  line  of  action,  this  appli- 
cation of  the  term  "  wanton,"  grounded  on  the  barest 
outline  of  the  facts,  appears  to  me  to  indicate  a  frame 
of  mind  not  precisely  judicial. 

Next  in  regard  to  the  incident.     The  evidence  in 
its  favour  at  first   sight  appears  very   strong;   it  is 
related    in   each   of    the   synoptic   Gospels,   and   the 
marked  variations  in  the  different  accounts  make  it 
more  probable  that  these  were  derived  from  a  tra- 
ditional groundwork,  than  that  they  were  interpola- 
tions into  the  original  documents,  as  we  know  to  be 
the  case  with  one  or  two  passages.    The  dates  of  these 
three  Gospels  in  their  present  form  cannot  be  fixed 
with  precision.     Two  of  them,  however,  those  bearing 
the  names  of  Mark  and  Luke,  are  admittedly  not  the 
work  of  persons  who  were  eye-witnesses  of  the  inci- 
dents.   Matthew,  indeed,  was  one  of  the  chosen  twelve, 
but  in  this  case  we  cannot  be  sure  that  we  possess 
the  orio-inal  document.     Indeed,  it  would  seem  more 
probable,  though  there  is  much  to  be  said  on  both 
sides,  that  this  was  written  in  Hebrew,  and  that  the 
one  known  to  us  is  a  very  ancient  translation.     At 
the  same  time  (I  say  this  lest  I  should  be  misunder- 
stood in  admitting  thus  much),  I  fully  believe  that 


2o8  THE   DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA. 

these  three  Gospels  are  very  ancient  writings ;  that 
they  are  very  probably — though  this  cannot  be  proved 
beyond  question — the  work  of  the  authors  whose  names 
they  bear ;  that  if  not,  they  can  hardly  be  later  than 
the  first  century  of  our  era,  and  that  they  narrate  the 
story  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  in  all  important  particulars 
as  it  was  told  by  those  who  were  eye-witnesses  of  His 
life.  But  I  am  prepared  to  admit  that  the  authors 
may  possibly  have  included,  here  and  there,  an  in- 
cident which  formed  a  part  of  the  common  stock 
of  tradition,  but  nevertheless  might  not  be  strictly 
authentic,  though  it  might  have  some  foundation. 

Now,  in  regard  to  this  incident,  as  soon  as  we  begin 
to  scrutinize  it,  difficulties  arise.  If  we  except  the 
destruction  of  the  fig  tree,  where  also  there  are  diffi- 
culties, and  the  parallelism  may  be  disputed,  this 
miracle  is  totally  different  from  all  the  others  which 
our  Lord  is  said  to  have  worked,  but  it  reminds  us 
of  a  type  frequent  in  the  Apocryphal  Gospels  and  in 
later  legends.  This,  however,  is  not  all.  Where  did 
the  miracle  happen?  St.  Matthew,  according  to  the 
Authorized  Version,  says  "  in  the  land  of  the  Gerge- 
senes"  but  the  Revised  Version  reads  Gadarenes,  and 
one  ancient  manuscript  Gazarenes.  In  St.  Mark  and 
St.  Luke  we  find  Gadarenes  in  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion and  Gerasenes  in  the  Revised.     Now,  in  regard 


THE  DEMONIACS   OF  GADARA.  209 

to  these  places,  the  existence  of  a  town  near  the  lake 
named  Gergesa  has  been  asserted  by  commentators, 
but  apparently  on  no  better  authority  than  the  sup- 
posed needs  of  exegesis.  Gerasa  is  a  well-known 
town,  but  it  was  in  Eastern  Persea,  twenty  miles  east 
of  the  Jordan,  and  at  a  yet  greater  distance  from  the 
lake.  Gadara  can  be  identified  with  the  modern 
Om-Keis,  evidently  once  a  flourishing  town,  with 
numerous  rock-hewn  tombs  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood. But  this  identification  has  its  own  difii- 
culties,  for  the  town  is  a  considerable  distance — three 
and  a  half  hours' journey — from  the  lake  shore,  and  the 
rocky  slope  in  its  neighbourhood  descends  to  a  river. 
Topographical  difiiculties,  then,  exist  in  regard  to  this 
passage  which  are  not  usually  present  in  other  parts 
of  the  Gospel  history.  Moreover,  St.  Matthew  dis- 
tinctly mentions  two  demoniacs,  St.  Mark  and  St. 
Luke  only  one,  and  there  are  other  minor  discre- 
pancies. It  is,  then,  evident  that  we  are  not  in  pos- 
session of  a  very  accurate  version  of  what  occurred 
on  this  occasion,  and  thus  are  justified  in  declining 
to  be  bound  by  inferences  founded  on  its  details. 

Still  it  must  be  frankly  admitted  that  our  difiiculties 

do  not  disappear  with  this  particular  incident.     In 

several  passages  of  the  New  Testament  the  existence 

of  such   a   condition   as   is   described  by  the  words 

P 


2IO  THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA. 

"  demoniacal  possession "  is  affirmed,  and  the  lan- 
guage attributed  to  the  Saviour  ascribes  to  Him  a 
belief  in  its  reality;  that  is  to  say,  He  employs,  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  words  which  are  meaningless 
unless  addressed  to  a  something  external  to  the  man, 
which,  like  a  motive  force,  was  the  prime  influence  in 
his  actions.  We  are,  therefore,  presented  with  this 
dilemma :  "  Either  Jesus  said  what  He  is  reported  to 
have  said,  or  He  did  not.  In  the  former  case,  it  is 
inevitable  that  His  authority  on  matters  connected 
with  the  unseen  world  should  be  roughly  shaken ;  in 
the  latter,  the  blow  falls  upon  the  authority  of  the 
^noptic  Gospels.  If  their  report  on  a  matter  of  so 
stupendous  and  far-reaching  import  as  this  is  un- 
trustworthy, how  can  we  be  sure  of  its  trustworthiness 
in  other  cases  ?  " 

As  regards  the  latter  alternative,  I  grant  that  by 
accepting  it  we  do  to  a  certain  extent  diminish  the 
credit  of  the  authors  of  the  synoptic  Gospels,  but  I 
humbly  demur  to  the  matter  being  regarded  as  one 
of  "  stupendous  and  far-reaching  import."  Reserving 
for  a  moment  my  full  reasons  for  this,  I  content  myself 
with  remarking  that,  to  my  mind,  the  main  outlines 
of  the  message  brought  by  Jesus  to  mankind  appear 
to  me  vastly  more  important  than  the  correction  of 
the  diaofnosis,  however  inaccurate,  of  a  disease. 


THE   DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA.  211 

Let  US  take  the  former  alternative,  that  Jesus,  as 
man,  accepted  the  current  belief  in  demoniacal  pos- 
session, and  let  us  assume  for  the  moment  that  in  so 
doing  He  was  wrong.  As  I  pointed  out  on  a  former 
occasion,^  we  are  told  distinctly  that  by  His  Incarna- 
tion He  subjected  Himself  to  the  conditions  of  human 
life,  and  thus  to  limitation,  or  even  imperfection,  of 
knowledge.  So,  it  will  be  said.  His  authority  in 
matters  connected  with  the  unseen  world  is  roughly 
shaken.  Doubtless,  in  certain  matters,  if  that  can 
be  said  to  be  "shaken"  which  we  do  not  admit  to 
be  existent.  I  learn,  on  what  appears  to  be  good 
authority,  that  He  came  to  bring  life  and  immortality 
to  light  through  the  Gospel,  and  it  does  not  appear 
to  me,  as  I  infer  it  did  not  appear  to  His  special 
messengers,  that  such  matters  as  the  details  of  the 
Divine  scheme  of  government,  the  nature  and  influ- 
ences on  man  of  beings  other  than  human  (admitting 
for  a  moment  their  existence),  the  end  of  the  world, 
and  the  like — notwithstanding  the  attractions  which 
they  aff"ord  to  our  minds — were  regarded  as  of  primary 
and  vital  importance. 

But  it  is  affirmed  the  right  or  wrong  of  the  idea  of 
demoniacal  possession  is  of  such  importance  that  a 
declaration  on  the  subject  could  not,  ought  not  to, 

^  See  pp.  169-173. 


212  THE  DEMONIACS  OF   GADARA. 

have  been  withheld.  This  sounds  to  me  very  like  the 
way  in  which  children  often  pass  judgment  on  the 
actions  of  their  elders.  They  assume  that  they  are 
in  possession  of  all  the  facts  and  an  equal  power  of 
dealing  with  them,  and  then  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt  of  the  accuracy  of  their  conclusions.  We  older 
folk,  on  the  contrary,  often  think  that  their  know- 
ledge of  facts  is  very  imperfect,  and  that  their  methods 
of  induction  are  very  hasty. 

But  let  us  leave  generalities  and  proceed  to  the 
particular  assertion.  In  support  of  this  two  reasons 
are  given.  This  is  one:  "If  physical  and  mental 
disorders  are  caused  by  demons,  Gregory  of  Tours  and 
his  contemporaries  rightly  considered  that  relics  and 
exorcisms  were  more  useful  than  doctors,  and  the 
gravest  questions  arise  as  to  the  legal  and  moral 
responsibilities  of  persons  inspired  by  demoniacal 
impulses."  There  seems  to  me  some  confusion  of 
thought  or  question-begging  here.  I  was  not  pre- 
viously aware  that  I  was  bound  to  believe  that  relics, 
or  the  repetition  of  some  form  of  words,  had  any  power 
at  all  of  themselves.  Indeed,  I  thought  that  the 
Church  of  England — whatever  superstitiots  members 
of  it  might  say — expressly  repudiated  any  such  idea. 
Is  not  this  much  the  same  as  saying,  "  If  you  believe 
in  the  existence  of  God  you  are  bound  to  worship  a 


THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA.  213 

graven  image  "  ?  The  principle,  in  short,  which  it  is 
sought  to  affirm — and  there  is  nothing  new  in  the 
attempt— is  this  :  "  Faith  is  responsible  for  the  errors 
of  superstition."  I  will  alter  it,  so  that  we  may  see 
whether  it  will  be  palatable  all  round:  "Science  is 
responsible  for  the  errors  of  charlatans."  For  myself, 
I  believe  the  latter  no  more  than  the  former. 

Further,  I  fail  to  see  what  questions  as  to  the  legal 
or  moral  responsibility  of  persons  thus  afflicted  are 
raised  which  do  not  already  exist  and  have  not  been 
dealt  with.  They  appear  to  me  identical  with  those 
presented  by  the  admitted  existence  of  insanity,  and 
I  do  not  see  in  what  important  respect  these  are 
modified  by  the  diagnosis  of  the  ultimate  cause  of 
the  disease.  In  either  case  a  certain  amount  of  re- 
sponsibility, moral  or  legal,  may  rest  upon  the  afflicted 
person,  and  this  fact— no  doubt  involving  great  prac- 
tical difficulties— appears  to  be  already  recognized 
both  by  law  and  by  public  opinion. 

The  other  reason  advanced  is  this— that  a  belief  in 
the  reality  of  demoniacal  possession  gave  rise,  through 
the  special  influence  of  Christian  ecclesiastics,  to  the 
most  horrible  persecutions  and  judicial  murders,  and 
the  record  of  a  plain  and  simple  declaration  upon 
such  an  occasion  as  this  would  have  rendered  the 
long  agony  of  mediseval  humanity  impossible. 


214  THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADAKA. 

I  venture  to  question  this  rather  confident  state- 
ment. The  prediction  does  not  appear  to  me  borne 
out  by  facts.  The  plainest  precepts  of  the  Gospel 
have  been  violated  again  and  again  in  the  name  of 
Christ  by  the  ministers  of  the  Church.  That  Gospel 
which  was  to  bring  peace  on  earth  has  impelled  the 
sword,  and  has  been  made  to  mankind  one  long  agony. 
Read  the  history  of  the  conflicts  and  anathemas  of 
the  early  Church,  of  the  persecutions  of  the  mediaeval 
and  later  Churches;  read  the  tale  of  the  Albigenses, 
Waldenses,  Lollards,  the  outrages  perpetrated  by 
Romanists  and  Protestants,  Episcopalians  and  Cove- 
nanters— none  can  show  clean  hands,  though  some  are 
more  guilty  than  others — perpetrated  for  the  honour 
of  God  and  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  and  then  say  if  you  can  feel  very  hopeful  as 
to  the  effects  of  a  declaration  adverse  to  the  general 
tide  of  popular  opinion.  Men  are  so  teachable,  so 
ready  to  accept  truth !  Permit  me  to  propose  a  test 
if  you  are  the  victim  of  this  illusion.  Read  the  New 
Testament  without  prejudice  till  you  have  fairly 
grasped  its  principles,  and  then  devote  yourself  to 
a  brief  study  of  the  so-called  religious  newspapers. 

As  regards,  then,  the  idea  of  demoniacal  possession. 
Gi  anted  that  it  is  a  belief  to  which  human  nature 
seems  especially  prone ;  granted  that  it  is  most  intense 


THE   DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA.  215 

among  the  most  ignorant ;  granted  that  in  regard  to 
it  the  wildest  and  most  absurd   notions  have   been 
prevalent ;  granted  that  the  general  tendency  of  scien- 
tific study  has  been  to  attribute  its  phenomena  to 
so-called  physical  causes, — all  this,  I  maintain,  is  no 
proof  that  the  idea  may  not  have  a  true  basis.     If 
I  admit  the  above  facts  as  conclusive  in  a  destructive 
sense,  I  must  also,  if  I  am  to  be  consistent,  abandon 
all  belief  in  the  existence  of  anything  but  myself, 
because  the  most  absurd  ideas  have  been  from  time 
to    time    entertained   about   everything   external   to 
myself,  and  then,  inasmuch  as  I  have  no  sure  test 
of  my  own  sanity,  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  trust- 
worthiness of  my  own  consciousness,  I  am  driven  to 
a  kind  of  mental  suicide.     I  see  the  difficulties  in- 
volved  in  attaining   to    a  belief  in  anything  which 
cannot   be   demonstrated   by  direct   experiment,  but 
fail  to  see  that  we  are  placed  in  a  much  better  posi- 
tion by  practically  refusing  to  admit  the  possibility 
of  a  revelation.     We  have,  in  effect,  to  deal  with  this 
dilemma.     If  we   disbelieve  Christianity,  there  is  a 
great  body  of  historic  facts  which  are  most  difficult 
to  explain  on  the  theory  that  it  is  an  illusion.     If 
we  accept  it,  we  must  receive  as  facts  certain  things 
which  doubtless  are  incapable  of  experimental  demon- 
stration  and   contrary  to   general   experience.     This, 


2i6  THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA. 

indeed,  raises  a  point  on  which  I  would  gladly  en- 
large, but  time  does  not  now  permit.  It  is  this — that 
to  say  that  a  certain  phenomenon  is  the  result  of 
causes  wholly  physical  is  misleading.  Scientific  re- 
search only  discloses  to  us  the  sequence  of  phenomena; 
it  in  no  case  explains  the  cause.  Even  if  you  can 
^o  so  far  as  to  connect  the  exhibition  of  certain 
symptoms  of  disease  with  the  deterioration  or  even 
the  mechanical  disturbance  of  a  particular  organ,  you 
cannot  say  %{:)liy  it  is ;  you  have  got  no  further  than 
that  (as  most  would  admit)  every  phenomenon  of  life, 
so  far  as  we  know  it,  must  have  a  physical  basis.  If, 
then,  there  be  a  God  Who  is  the  Ruler  of  this  world — 
and  this  many  who  are  not  Christians  would  admit — 
and  if  man,  in  this  world,  be  in  a  state  of  trial,  be,  so 
to  say,  at  school,  then  it  seems  to  me  impossible  to 
assert  that  there  may  not  be  creatures  other  than 
man,  whether  better  or  worse  than  he,  who  may  be 
intermediaries  in  the  government  and  discipline  of  the 
human  race.  When  this  is  stated  on  what  seems  to 
me  good  authority,  I  do  not  feel  justified  in  pro- 
nouncing it  incredible  on  a  'priori  grounds,  simply 
because  I  cannot  put  it  to  experimental  proof.  Even 
in  matters  capable  of  being  submitted  to  this  test,  I 
often  cannot  say  what  it  is  that  causes  the  phenomena. 
I  have  never  yet  found  any  one  who  could  really 


THE  DEMONIACS  OF  GADARA.  217 

explain  such  a  simple  thing  as  magnetism.  So,  in 
regard  to  the  existence  of  spirits  of  good  or  evil,  I 
do  not  think  that  we  can  j^et  say  more  than  that 
caution  is  needed,  because  evidently  any  opinion  con- 
cerning them  is  liable  to  be  perverted  into  a  super- 
stition. Further,  I  will  add  that  the  whole  question 
appears  to  me  of  very  secondary  importance.  The 
great  duty  of  life,  both  to  you  and  to  me,  is  not  to 
discuss  the  existence  and  sphere  of  action  of  angels  or 
of  demons,  but  to  seek  to  follow  the  footsteps  of  Christ, 
and  strive  to  come  to  Him,  Whom  truly  to  know  is 
eternal  life. 

[P. S.— Since  this  sermon  was  written  the  subject  has  received 
further  attention,  the  latest  contribution  being  an  article  by  Mr. 
Gladstone  in  the  Nineteenth  Centunj  (February,  1891),  which  appeared 
while  this  sheet  was  passing  through  the  press.  The  article  is  a 
learned  and  interesting  disquisition,  but  seems  to  me  to  leave  the 
main  difficulties  almost  untouched.] 


THE    MIRACLES    OF   APOSTOLIC   AND 
MEDIAEVAL   TIMES.i 

"There  shall  arise  false  Christs  and  false  prophets,  and 
shall  show  great  signs  and  wonders,  insomueli  that,  if  it 
were  possible,  they  shall  deceive  the  very  elect." 

St.  Matt.  xxiv.  24. 

Chkistianity  is  now  frequently  attacked,  in  the 
following  way.  Critics  select  a  particular  case,  and 
present  to  us  alternative  propositions;  to  take  one 
side  is  a  virtual  surrender,  to  take  the  other  speedily 
lands  us  in  an  absurdity.  It  is  tacitly  assumed  that 
no  third  course  is  possible. 

1  purpose  to  notice  briefly  one  of  these  attacks 
which  was  published  in  a  recent  number  of  a  well- 
known  periodical,^  and  probably  has  been  read  by 
many  of  my  hearers.  The  alternative  which  it  offers 
to  us  amounts  to  this.  Miracles  are  asserted  to  have 
occurred   frequently  in  the    Middle   Ages.     In   some 

^  A  sermon  preached  for  the  Christian  Evidence  Society,  1889. 

2  Nineteenth  Century,  March,  1889  :  "The  Value  of  Witness  to  the 
Miraculous  "  (Professor  Huxley). 

218 


MIRA CLES  OF  APOSTOLIC  AND  MEDI^  VAL  TIMES.     2 19 

instances  the  evidence  by  which  they  are  supported 
is  as  good  as  can  be  produced  in  favour  of  those 
narrated  in  the  New  Testament.  Will  you  believe 
both  or  neither?  The  difficulty  is  not  a  new  one. 
No  great  theological  learning  is  needed  to  convince 
us  that,  if  the  case  proposed  has  not  been  already 
considered,  it  is  exactly  like  others  that  have  been 
discussed;  but  a  seasoning  of  modern  science  acts 
as  a  stimulus  to  the  mental  palate. 

Briefly,  the  story  is  this.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the 
ninth  century  there  was  living  one  Eginhard,  secretar}^ 
of  Karl  the  Great,  who,  in  his  later  years,  founded  a 
monastery  of  which  he  became  abbot.  He  is  anxious 
to  enrich  its  church  with  some  relics.  A  certain 
deacon  from  Rome  intimates  that  for  a  consideration 
he  can  put  Eginhard  in  possession  of  the  relics  of  two 
saints  named  Marcellinus  and  Petrus.  Eginhard  sends 
him  back  to  Rome  in  company  with  a  trusty  agent. 
The  deacon,  however,  proves  to  be  an  impostor;  he 
has  promised  to  sell  what  he  does  not  possess,  so 
Eginhard's  men  steal  the  relics,  and  escape  with  them 
to  Germany.  As  these  are  being  conveyed  to  the 
church,  where  they  were  finally  deposited,  and  after 
they  have  been  enshrined  there,  numerous  miracles 
are  wrought,  a  few  of  which  were  witnessed  by 
Eginhard. 


220  THE  MIRACLES  OF 

Of  all  this  he  has  left  a  record,  which  has  come 
down  to  us  in  a  manuscript,  itself  dating  from  the 
tenth  century.  From  it  we  also  learn,  that  on  the 
journey  from  Rome  the  chest  containing  the  relics 
was  secretly  opened,  and  portions  were  stolen  by  the 
emissary  of  another  abbot,  and  that  Eginhard,  after 
discovering  his  loss,  did  not  easily  get  back  the 
missing  treasure.  The  induction  which  we  are  invited 
to  draw  is  as  follows :  In  ordinary  life  Eginhard  was 
a  shrewd  man  of  affairs  and  a  sober  historian,  but  no 
sooner  is  an  appeal  made  to  the  religious  (or  super- 
stitious) side  of  his  nature  than  he  appears  to  be 
almost  as  destitute  of  critical  faculty  as  of  moral 
sense.  Indeed,  throughout  the  story  its  chief  actors 
seem  about  as  conspicuous  for  their  degraded  knavery 
as  for  their  fatuous  credulity. 

So  we  are  expected  to  arrive  at  this  conclusion : 
"If  Eginhard's  calm  and  objective  narrative  of  the 
historical  events  of  his  time  is  no  guarantee  for  the 
soundness  of  his  judgment  where  the  supernatural  is 
concerned,  the  fervid  rhetoric  of  the  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles,  his  absolute  confidence  in  the  inner  light, 
and  the  extraordinary  conceptions  of  the  value  and 
requirements  of  logical  proof  which  he  betrays  in 
page  after  page  of  his  Epistles,  afford  still  less  security." 

As  it  happens,  I  have  given  more  attention  than 


APOSTOLIC  AND  MEDIEVAL    TIMES.  221 

most  people  to  some  parts  of  St.  Paul's  writings,  so 
may  be  pardoned  for  demurring  to  the  censures  thus 
glibly  passed  upon  a  highly  inconvenient  witness, 
whom  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  discredit. 
I  admit,  indeed,  that  St.  Paul  thought  and  reasoned 
as  a  Jew  and  a  man  of  the  first  century,  not  as  a 
professor  of  Teutonic  or  Latin  race,  born  in  the  nine- 
teenth century;  that,  as  he  is  speaking  of  things 
which  cannot  be  tested  by  the  galvanometer  or  the 
microscope,  his  methods  of  reasoning  are  not  always 
in  accordance  with  those  adopted  in  physical  science, 
but  they  seem  to  me  at  least  as  sound  and  trust- 
worthy as  many  which  pass  muster  in  metaphysical 
works  of  good  repute. 

This,  however,  it  may  be  said,  is  a  matter  of  opinion, 
so  we  will  pass  on  to  consider  briefly  these  three  ques- 
tions. (1)  What  is  a  miracle?  (2)  Have  miracles 
ceased?  (3)  Is  there  any  difference  of  importance 
between  the  miracles  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles  and 
those  which  are  related  by  Eginhard,  and  similar 
authors  ? 

1.  Perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  remind  you  that  three 
words  are  used  in  the  Greek  of  the  New  Testament 
to  designate  the  phenomena  which  are  commonly,  but 
vaguely,  termed  miraculous.  These  words  may  be 
rendered  in  English  as  marvels,  signs,  powers.     The 


222  THE  MIRACLES  OF 

first  refers  simply  to  the  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the 
spectators,  and  may  indicate  nothing  more  than 
superior  knowledge.  The  miracle  here  consists  in 
the  inexplicability  of  an  event,  so  far  as  the  witnesses 
were  concerned.  A  "sign"  may  be  in  itself  quite  a 
commonplace  event,  the  whole  significance  being  its 
occurrence  at  a  particular  juncture;  the  "miracle" 
here  consisting  in  the  coincidence.  The  last  term — 
''powers" — predicates  that  certain  persons  can  produce 
results  which  indicate  the  possession  of  exceptional 
power.  Here,  also,  what  would  be  called  a  miracle 
in  one  age  would  be  in  another  an  unusual  and  re- 
markable phenomenon.  From  this  it  follows  that  the 
word  *' miracle,"  so  vaguely  employed,  has  a  very  com- 
prehensive sense,  and  includes  a  large  number  of 
phenomena  which  are  only  relatively  miraculous,  that 
is  amazing  and  inexplicable.  Hence  the  term  "miracle" 
merely  expresses  an  event  as  viewed  from  the  stand- 
point either  of  a  past  age  or  of  our  present  know- 
ledge. We  include  in  it  events  for  which  we  cannot 
discover  an  adequate  cause  among  the  modes  of  force 
known  to  us,  and  which,  as  they  are  connected  with 
the  religious  sentiment,  are  referred  to  the  direct  or 
indirect  intervention  of  the  Almighty.  But  this  mode 
of  accounting  for  them  obviously  is  no  more  than  an 
expression  of  the  dominant  opinion  of  a  particular 


APOSTOLIC  AND  MEDIEVAL    TIMES.  223 

epoch;  the  idea  of  "interference  with  the  laws  of 
nature,"  though  usual,  is  needless,  and,  as  I  think, 
misleading.  The  miracle  may  be  the  result  of  law 
as  much  as  the  fall  of  a  stone,  but  of  a  law  of  infre- 
quent operation;  so  that  in  regard  to  it  the  phrase 
"interference  with  law"  is  as  inappropriate  as  it 
would  be  in  the  case  of  an  electro-magnet,  which, 
though  it  hinders  a  bar  of  iron  from  falling,  so  long- 
as  the  current  is  passing,  does  not  in  any  way  inter- 
fere with  the  law  of  gravitation. 

Further,  we  must  not  forget  that  these  wonders, 
signs,  and  powers  were  not  regarded  by  the  Saviour 
or  His  immediate  followers  as  conclusive  proof  of  the 
validity  of  a  commission  or  the  truth  of  a  message. 
The  life  of  the  prophet,  the  appeal  of  his  doctrine  to 
the  conscience  and  moral  sense  of  his  auditors,  were 
the  only  safe  criteria.  Christians  are  warned  with 
much  solemnity,  and  not  seldom,  as  in  the  passage 
which  I  have  taken  for  my  text,  that  if  they  trusted 
only  to  the  evidence  of  miracles,  they  might  be  de- 
ceived and  led  hopelessly  astray.  Another  point  also 
may  be  noticed  in  passing,  that  Christ  would  not 
work  these  miracles  to  gratify  mere  curiosity  or  stop 
the  mouth  of  captious  unbelief;  and  that  the  result 
often  depended  to  no  small  extent  on  the  mental 
attitude  of  the  person  relieved.     Wher^  men  did  not 


224  THE  MIRACLES   OF 

believe  in    Christ,  there   His   power   was   not   made 
manifest. 

2.  These  considerations  clear  the  way  for  an  answer 
to  the  second  question — Do  miracles  continue  ?  If 
this  question  means,  Have  there  been  occurrences, 
since  the  close  of  the  New  Testament  canon,  which 
were  connected  with  religious  sentiment,  and  cannot 
be  accounted  for  by  any  known  physical  causes  ?  — I 
reply,  without  hesitation,  Certainly.  You  may  think 
that  I  am  making  a  rather  large  admission.  If  so, 
explain  such  things  as  the  effect  of  bad  news  upon 
the  health ;  the  influence  of  the  will,  the  phenomena 
— endless  in  their  variety — of  hysteria  and  its  cure. 
In  accounting  for  these  you  must  appeal  to  forces,  as 
you  may  call  them,  which  are  not,  strictly  speaking, 
physical.  Such  phenomena,  from  one  point  of  view, 
might  be  justly  called  miracles,  and  such  miracles 
continue  to  occur.  I  can  believe  that  at  Lourdes, 
La  Salette,  and  other  like  places,  the  imagination — 
the  faith  in  a  certain  sense — of  the  sufferers  in  some 
cases  has  wrought  their  cure.  But  you  say  that  is 
no  miracle.  Well,  you  may  find  a  place  for  it  in  your 
system  of  the  universe ;  you  may  call  it  an  effect  of 
the  imagination,  or  you  may  devise  for  it  a  long  and 
magniloquent  name,  but  in  so  doing  you  neither 
explain  it  nor  make  it  a  merely  physical  process,  as 
I  understand  the  word. 


APOSTOLIC  AND  MEDIEVAL    TIMES,  225 

I  must  not  be  supposed  to  assert  that  all  the  miracles 
related  in  the  New  Testament  can  be  classed  with  the 
above  named.  There  are  some  which  in  all  probability 
will  always  remain  as  miracles  to  man.  I  simply  draw 
attention  to  the  relativity  of  the  term.  As  knowledge 
grows,  the  sphere  of  the  natural  enlarges  by  gain  from 
the  outer  region  of  the  supranatural,  but  even  these 
additions  bring  us  no  nearer  to  the  ultimate  causes 
of  things,  so  that,  turn  where  we  will,  true  miracle 
ever  confronts  us. 

3.  There  remains  the  question — Is  there  any  differ- 
ence of  importance  between  the  miracles  recorded  by 
Eginhard  and  those  ascribed  to  the  Saviour  and  His 
Apostles  ?  Restricting  ourselves  to  those  for  which 
Eginhard  vouches — and  this  seems  to  me  justifiable, 
owing  to  the  circumstances  of  the  time — one,  obviously, 
is  no  miracle  at  all,  but  merely  a  natural  phenomenon. 
Some  spots  of  a  red  fluid  appear  outside  the  coffer 
containing  the  relics;  these,  on  the  most  insufficient 
evidence,  simply  as  being  a  red  fluid,  are  considerecl 
to  be  blood.  This,  had  it  been  true,  would  have  been 
a  mere  prodigy,  and  without  a  parallel  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  other  two  may  be  classed  with  the 
cases  of  "  faith -healing "  which  I  have  already  men- 
tioned. You  cannot  explain  them,  you  cannot  ensure 
their  occurrence  like  the  result  of  an  experiment,  and 
Q 


226  THE  MIRACLES  OF 

80  far  they  are  miraculous.  But  I  venture  to  affirm 
that  had  the  coffer  contained  the  bones  of  any  other 
persons,  or  even  had  it  been  empty,  the  result  would 
have  followed,  provided  of  course  the  sufferer  had  not 
been  aware  of  the  change. 

But  there  is  another  and  yet  more  important 
difference — the  character  of  the  men  and  the  nature 
of  their  teaching.  Eginhard's  emissaries  steal  the 
relics ;  he  is  a  willing,  nay,  a  joyful  recipient  of  stolen 
property ;  others  in  turn  rob  him.  As  our  critic 
remarks  quite  truly,  we  seem  to  be  reading  about 
the  doings  of  a  gang  of  horse  cotipers.  The  desire  to 
possess  a  collection  of  relics  overpowers  all  sense  of 
right  and  wrong  ;  the  worst  of  all  evils  has  happened 
to  the  men  of  this  age,  their  religious  feelings  have 
led  them  into  flagrant  sin ;  to  speak  metaphorically, 
the  devil  has  enshrined  himself  in  the  chapel  of  their 
souls ;  they  are  seeking  to  win  entrance  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  by  deeds  of  evil.  Is  that  the  path 
which  Christ  and  His  Apostles  indicated  ?  Is  that 
the  way  which  leads  to  eternal  life  ? 

Again,  what  is  the  doctrine  which  these  miracles 
supported  and  inculcated  ?  It  is  that  some  scrap, 
whether  of  bone  or  rag,  which  has  belonged,  or  is 
reputed  to  have  belonged,  to  a  holy  man  is  a  talisman 
of  inestimable  value.     This  doctrine  might  indeed  be 


APOSTOLIC  AND  MEDIEVAL    TIMES.  227 

vaguely  supported  by  an  inferential  interpretation  of 
one  or  two  incidents  in  the  New  Testament,  but  it 
is  totally  opposed  to  its  direct  statements.  Charms, 
amulets,  relics,  and  the  like,  are  part  and  parcel  of 
old-world  superstitions,  which  Christ  would  have  had 
His  Church  abandon,  but  to  which  its  members  in 
their  weakness  too  soon  reverted.  Then  the  last 
state  became  even  worse  than  the  first ;  Christianity 
in  its  superstition  more  degraded  than  Judaism,  or 
even  than  some  forms  of  heathenism.  The  corruption 
yet  lingers,  its  roots  lie  deep  in  human  nature,  and 
few  branches  of  the  Church,  even  in  this  nineteenth 
century,  have  wholly  succeeded  in  purging  themselves 
from  it. 

In  the  one  case,  then,  we  are  dealing  with  repre- 
sentatives of  Christianity  at  one  of  its  lowest  stages 
of  degradation,  a  stage  when  men  of  perverted  moral 
sense  were  constantly,  almost  greedily,  expecting  the 
.miraculous  to  establish  an  immoral  and  thoroughly 
unchristian  doctrine.  Can  that  be  said  of  the  other 
case  ?  The  Apostles  might  be  mistaken,  they  might 
be  victims  of  an  illusion,  but  can  any  man  question 
their  transparent  honesty,  their  singleness  of  purpose, 
their  perfect  unselfishness,  their  noble  self-devotion, 
their  moral  grandeur  of  life  ?  Whither  do  we  turn 
when  we  seek  for  an  approved  standard  of  right  and 


228  THE  MIRACLES  OF 

wrong,  for  principles  of  conduct  which  have  won  the 
obedience  of  mankind,  but  to  the  pages  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  chronicle  of  the  lives,  the  words,  the 
thoughts,  of  these  first  missionaries  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  ?     What  would  Paul,  what  would  James,  what 
would  John  have  said  of  theft  and  fraud  and  lying 
however   pious   the   purpose  ?      Their   successors   on 
such   occasions   have  been   too  prone  to  indulge  in 
euphemistic  phrases  ;  but  they  would  have  used  plain 
speech    and   strong   words.      With    what   withering 
scorn  would  Paul  have  spurned  these  old  rags  and 
bones,    these    ordinances   worse    than   Jewish,  these 
idolized  relics  of  weak  and   fallible  men !     It  is   an 
insult  to  the  Apostles  to  make  the  comparison.     It 
betrays    a   complete   inability   to   comprehend    their 
moral  position ;  it  is  as  if  one  asserted  that  approved 
character  and  a  life  of  honour  counted  for  nothing 
in   weighing   testimony,   and   that   the   existence   of 
perjured  knaves  rendered  worthless  the  evidence   of 
men  of  unsullied  reputation.    If  we  adopt  such  canons 
of  criticism,  whither  shall  we  be  landed  ?     Because  in 
politics  there  are  self-seeking  knaves,  is  there  no  such 
thing  as  an  honest  worker  for  the  State  ?     Because 
there  are  quacks  in  medicine,  are  we  to  sneer  at  all 
physicians  ?     Because  in  science  there  has  been  care- 
less observation,  hasty  generalization,  loose  induction 


APOSTOLIC  AND  MEDIMVAL    TIMES.  229 

and  irresponsible  chatter,  are  we  to  abandon  all  trust 
in  it,  and  say  that  some  truth  may  be  there,  but  that 
we  shall  never  find  it  ? 

What  good  are  we  to  obtain  from  an  Agnostic 
position  ?  It  is  that  which  in  science  we  should  be 
most  reluctant  to  accept,  for  it  leaves  us  without  a 
working  hypothesis.  Is  it  without  its  difficulties  ? 
I  think  not.  Suppose  we  concede  that  Christianity 
was  born  of  a  mixture  of  imposture  and  illusion, 
we  have  to  account  for  many  phenomena  which  are 
unique  in  the  world's  history,  and  for  the  part  played 
by  it  in  the  development  of  mankind.  The  latter 
seems  to  me  not  less  inexplicable  than  the  idea  of  a 
Divine  Founder.  There  are  difficulties  in  Christianity, 
the  Agnostic  urges — certainly  there  are.  I  know 
them  well,  and  the  weakness,  fallibility,  and  credulity 
of  man.  But  there  are  difficulties  also  in  Atheism, 
yet  that  creed — or  rather  no  creed — seems  to  me 
logical  compared  with  the  position  of  the  Agnostic, 
who  halts  between  two  opinions ;  who  neither  asserts 
nor  denies  the  existence  of  a  God  ;  who  repudiates  the 
name  of  Atheist,  but  excludes  God  from  the  world  ; 
who  cannot  make  up  his  mind  whether  a  Creator's 
love  and  a  Creator's  care  have  been  guiding  men  on 
"stepping-stones  of  their  dead  selves  to  higher 
things,"  or  whether  individual  life  is  but  a  bubble  on 


230     MIR  A  CLES  OF  APOSTOLIC  AND  MEDI.^  VAL  TIMES. 

the  stream,  the  course  of  nations  like  a  river  hasting- 
to  lose  itself  in  the  sands  of  the  desert.  "  Behold,  we 
know  not  anything,"  is  a  poor  creed  for  this  weary 
world.  With  all  its  difficulties,  with  all  its  alleged 
imperfections,  Christianity  is  easier  to  believe  than 
that  God  made  man,  with  his  deep  capacities  for  loving 
and  for  suffering,  and  then  left  him  to  perish  in  the 
hurly-burly  of  life,  where  the  individual  counts  for 
nothing,  and  there  is  no  other  hope  than  in  the  pro- 
gress of  the  race.  It  is  better,  methinks,  to  accept 
the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  fact  of  the 
Resurrection,  with  their  legitimate  consequences, 
though  they  must  ever  remain  to  us  as  miracles 
beyond  the  sphere  of  scientific  proof,  and  transcending 
our  powers  of  thought,  than  to  make  ourselves  the 
measure  of  all  knowledge,  and  proclaim  to  the  Creator, 
"  Thus  far  shalt  Thou  go,  and  no  farther." 


THE   RAISING   OF   THE   WIDOW'S   SON> 

"  Jesu3  said,  Young  man,  I  say  imto  thee,  Arise.     And  he 
that  was  dead  sat  up,  and  began  to  speak." 

St.  Luke  vii.  14,  15. 

If  there  are  no  other  laws  of  Nature  than  those 
known  to  us,  this  story  cannot  be  true.  There  is  one 
bourne  from  which  no  traveller  returns.  Whatever 
weight  we  may  be  disposed  to  allow  to  the  widel}^ 
prevalent  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul — to 
use  a  general  phrase — and  in  the  possibility  of  com- 
munication between  the  living  and  the  spirits  of  the 
dead,  we  may  say  that  it  is  the  result  of  experience, 
practically  universal,  that,  so  far  as  this  world  is 
concerned,  death  is  the  end  of  life.  Is,  then,  the  story 
true ;  and  if  so,  what  are  its  lessons  ? 

Well,  if  we  have  made  up  our  minds  that,  slightly  to 
alter  a  well-known  axiom,  testimony  may  be  false  but 
a  miracle  cannot  be  true,  or  that  "  miracles  do  not  hap- 
pen," to  adopt  the  more  modern  formula,  it  is  needless 

^  Preached  in  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  Sixteenth  Sunday  after 
Trinity,  1889. 

231 


232  THE  RAISING   OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON. 

to  go  further,  and  we  must  content  ourselves  with 
such  spiritual  consolation  as  we  can  derive  from  the 
legend.  But  some  of  us,  though  always  sceptical  as 
to  miraculous  occurrences,  feel  that  we  are  surrounded 
by  so  many  phenomena  in  our  daily  experience  which 
we  cannot  really  understand  or  explain,  as  to  doubt 
whether  this  method  of  cutting  the  Gordian  knot 
succeeds  in  liberating  us  from  difficulties. 

Direct  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  alleged  raising  of 
the  widow's  son  is  impossible.  All  that  we  can  do  is 
to  enquire  whether  it  seems  an  accretion  to  the  story  of 
Christ's  life,  and  if  not,  it  will  stand  or  fall  with  that 
story.  Let  us,  then,  briefly  recall  the  circumstances  of 
the  narrative,  that  we  may  see  from  internal  evidence 
whether  the  tale  bears  the  marks  of  a  fabrication.  It 
is  related  by  St.  Luke  alone.  In  like  manner  the  raising 
of  Lazarus  is  mentioned  only  by  St.  John,  while  the 
raising  of  Jairus's  daughter  is  found  in  each  of  the 
synoptical  Gospels.  Thus  the  last  named  cannot  be 
rejected  on  the  ground  that  concurrent  testimony  is 
wanting.  But  if  we  admit  the  truth  of  one  case,  we 
abandon  all  a  ^priori  objections  against  the  others. 
Really,  however,  it  matters  little  whether  one  or  all  of 
the  Evangelists  mention  the  incident.  No  one  can  read 
the  Gospels  carefully  without  seeing  that,  according 
to  our  modern  notions,  they  are  very  far  from  being 


THE  RAISING   OF   THE    WILOW'S  SON.  233 

S3'stematic  compositions;  they  indicate  an  age  and 
habits  of  thought  very  different  from  our  own.  I  think, 
indeed,  that  a  better  knowledge  of  ancient  literature 
would  sometimes  make  us  a  little  distrustful  of  the 
results  of  measuring  the  documents  of  the  first  cen- 
tury by  the  canons  of  nineteenth-century  criticism. 
Each  of  the  Gospels  is  a  biographical  sketch,  more  or 
less  fragmentary,  so  that  it  is  as  unreasonable  to  try 
them  by  the  rules  of  modern  historians  as  it  would 
be  to  reject  the  testimony  of  any  living  writer,  who 
publishes  in  a  magazine  some  reminiscences  of  a 
friend,  because  he  does  not  tell  us  the  name  of  the 
villao-e  where  that  friend  was  born,  or  of  the  lady 

o 

whom  he  married. 

The  story  itself  is  perfectly  simple,  clear,  and 
natural.  Nain  was  a  town  of  some  size — reduced 
now  to  a  paltry  village  among  heaps  of  ruins — stand- 
ing on  the  rough  slopes  of  the  hill  called  Little 
Hermon,  and  overlooking  the  upper  reaches  of  the 
fertile  valley  of  Esdraelon.  The  town  was  walled, 
and  had  gates.  There  is  an  old  burial-ground  near 
the  track  leading  from  Endor  to  Nain,  and  this  route 
would  be  taken  by  any  one  coming  from  Capernaum.^ 
The  details  of  the  incident,  in  their  occasional  minute- 
ness and  general  simplicity,  seem  to  mark  the  hand  of 

^  Canon  Tristram,  The  Land  of  Israel,  ch.  vi. 


234  THE   RAISING   OF  THE   WIDOW'S  SON, 

an  ej^e-witness ;  the  fact  that  the  Saviour  saw  and 
spoke  to  the  weeping  mother  before  He  reached  the 
bier  indicates,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  a  perfect 
familiarity  with  the  Jewish  funeral  rites,  because  she 
would  precede  the  bier,  the  male  relations  and  friends 
following  it.  It  has  also  been  well  remarked,  on  this 
and  a  like  miracle,^  "The  simplicity  and  absence  of 
all  extravagant  details;  the  Divine  calmness  and 
majesty  on  the  part  of  the  Christ,  so  different  from 
the  manner  in  which  legend  would  have  coloured  the 
scene  .  .  .  and  lastly,  the  beauteous  harmony,  where 
all  is  in  accord,  from  the  first  touch  of  compassion  till 
when,  forgetful  of  the  bystanders,  heedless  of  '  effect,' 
He  gives  the  son  back  to  his  mother; — are  not  all 
these  worthy  of  the  event,  and  evidential  of  the  truth 
of  the  narrative  ? "  "  Christ  is  never  in  haste  ;  least 
of  all  on  His  errands  of  love.  And  He  is  never  in 
haste,  because  He  is  always  sure." 

Thus  we  have,  as  it  seems  to  me,  this  choice  only  : 
to  believe  the  story  a  deliberate  fabrication,  or  to 
believe  it  true,  for  it  does  not  resemble  a  parasitic 
legend.  I  know  what  the  latter  position  involves. 
I  know  that  the  raising  of  the  dead  cannot  be  demon- 
strated by  experiment,  and  is  contrary  to  the  general 
experience  of  mankind.  But  in  professing  myself  a 
'  Ederslieim,  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus  the  Messiah,  ch.  xx. 


THE  RAISING   OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON.  235 

Christian  I  abandon  a  strictly  scientific  position,  and 
must  be  prepared  to  accept  the  consequences ;  for  this 
profession  is  inseparable  from  a  belief  in  Christ's  own 
Resurrection  and  in  the  Word  made  flesh ;  and  these, 
though  they  may  be  made  probable,  cannot,  I  know, 
be  proved.  Once  admit  that  Christ,  in  the  full  sense 
of  the  words,  was  not  only  Son  of  Man  but  also  Son 
of  God,  and  though  critical  laws  have  their  place  in 
dealing  with  every  incident  of  His  life,  we  need  not 
trouble  ourselves  with  any  antecedent  improbability 
of  this  story.  In  the  presence  of  the  very  Source  of 
life,  the  Centre  of  force— if  the  phrase  be  permitted— 
of  the  whole  universe,  what  marvel  if  the  sick  became 
whole  and  the  dead  were  made  alive  ? 

What,  then,  are  the  lessons  of  the  incident?  In 
glancing  at  these  we  shall  perhaps  see  better  how 
congruous  it  is  with  the  mission  of  the  Saviour. 

Death  is  a  painful  fact — apart  from  sin,  the  most 
painful  fact  in  human  experience.  Without  revela- 
tion, as  we  can  see  from  the  plaintive  laments  of 
ancient  poets,  it  was  a  melancholy  and  inevitable 
necessity ;  it  might  be  faced  with  courage,  it  might  be 
endured  with  stoicism,  but  all  the  praise  and  all  the 
philosophy  of  man  could  not  make  it  welcome,  except 
as  a  release  from  sufiering,  which,  after  all,  is  really 
part  and  parcel  of  the  same  thing.     With  revelation, 


236  THE  RAISING   OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON. 

though  man  has  found  the  consolation  of  hope  and  the 
support  of  faith,  he  has  obtained  an  increased  sense  of 
responsibility  and  a  deepened  conviction  of  sin. 

Suppose,  however,  that  to  those  who  are  called  away 
death  does  come  as  a  friend ;  suppose  that  in  this 
solemn  hour  the  soul  begins  to  perceive  the  eternal 
light  beyond  the  melting  mists  of  earth,  and  attains 
to  the  assurance  that  "  to  depart  is  far  better."  What 
is  it  to  those  who  remain  ?  Call  us  selfish  if  you  will, 
but  parting  is  pain,  whatever  blessings  it  may  bring. 
Is  there  no  blank  in  the  home  even  when  the  daugh- 
ter  has  gone  away  as  a  happy  wife,  or  when  the  son 
has  sailed  for  a  distant  land,  though  his  departure 
be  to  fame  and  fortune  which  he  could  not  have 
enjoyed  at  home  ?  Yet  these  partings  are  but  for  a 
season ;  that  parting  is  for  ever  in  this  life.  Granted 
that  ''  to  die  is  gain  "  to  the  one  who  goes,  this  cannot 
be  purchased  without  a  loss  to  others.  Parting  is 
sorrow,  even  as  pain  is  pain,  and  no  poetry,  no  philo- 
sophy, no  faith,  can  ever  alter  that  fact.  We  may 
accept  a  sorrow  as  part  of  the  discipline  of  life ;  we 
may  receive  it  as  from  a  Father's  hand,  in  the  as- 
sured conviction  that  it  will  work  for  our  good ;  but 
welcome  it  cannot  be  so  long  as  man  is  man,  any 
more  than  a  drug  can  be  made  pleasant  to  the  taste 
by  the  knowledge  that  it  will  cure. 


THE  RAISING  OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON.  237 

Yet  more,  so  long  as  the  life  is  strong  in  a  man,  the 
summons  to  lay  it  down  cannot,  I  believe,  be  other 
than  painful  to  himself.     The  preacher  of  old  spoke 
truth  when  he  said  that  death  might  be  acceptable 
to  the  needy,  the  despairing,  and  the  man  worn  out 
by   age,   but   it    was   bitter   to   the   prosperous    and 
vigorous.     I  believe  that  a  desire  to  live  to  the  period 
allotted  to  man  is  not  only  natural  but  also  healthy — 
that   it   is   no   more    blameworthy   than    any    other 
natural  affection.     It,  like  they,  may  be  abused,  may 
be  perverted,  but  it  is  a  part  of  God's  order  of  nature, 
and  is  designed  for  the  preservation  of  man  and  the 
good  of  humanity.     Constituted  as  we  are,  it  would 
be  very  seldom  that  a  man  could  take  up  with  much 
energy  or  interest  a  piece  of  work  which  he  did  not 
desire  to  finish — indeed,  rather  hoped  he  would  not. 
So,  though  trust  in  God  and  the  love  of  God  enable 
us  to  say,  "  Thy  Will  be  done,"  nature  protests,  and 
will   protest   whenever    the    summons   comes,   while 
work  seems  to  open  out  before  us,  and  the  way  to 
the  grave  is  not  yet  smoothed  by  the  gentle  advance 
of  old  age.     Did  not  Christ  Himself  feel  this  ?     Was 
not  the  dread  hour  of  Gethsemane,  in  part  at  least, 
a  protest  of   the  human  nature  against  the  coming- 
Cross   and   the   abruptly  closed   career  ?     What   else 
meant  that  cry  of  agony,  "Father,  if  it  be  possible. 


238  THE  RAISING   OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON. 

let  this  cup  pass  from  Me  "  ?  But  that  was  the  prayer 
of  the  Perfect  One ;  for  it  ended,  "  Nevertheless  not  as 
I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt." 

Kemembering  this,  we  understand  better  the  signifi- 
cance of  those  three  instances  in  which  it  is  on  record 
that  Christ  recalled  the  dead  to  life.  As  has  often 
been  pointed  out,  the  Divine  power  is  exhibited  in 
three  stages  of  progress,  if  the  phrase  be  permissible. 
On  one  occasion  (the  first,  according  to  most  authori- 
ties) the  last  sigh  had  not  long  been  drawn;  on 
another,  life  had  departed  at  least  some  hours  before, 
for  the  body  was  being  taken  to  burial ;  on  the  third, 
it  had  lain,  perhaps,  four  days  in  the  tomb.  But  there 
is  also  a  progress  of  another  kind.  On  one  occasion 
it  is  the  child,  the  household  darling,  that  is  restored ; 
on  another,  the  young  man,  the  sole  stay  of  his 
widowed  mother;  on  the  third,  the  full-grown  man, 
the  blameless  and  beloved  friend  and  brother.  Yet 
all  these  were  types  of  cases  where  nature  most 
readily  and,  as  we  may  say,  most  reasonably  protests ; 
for  two  of  them  certainly  were  young,  and  there  is 
every  probability  that  Lazarus,  though  we  are  not 
told  his  age,  was  still  in  the  early  prime  of  life. 

Thus,  in  these  three  visible  victories  over  the  power 
of  death,  we  see  a  help  to  faith  just  where  its  trial 
is  sorest.     Of  all  the  perplexities  and  anomalies  which 


THE  RAISING   OF   THE    WIDOW'S  SON.  239 

this  life  offers,  I  think  few  are  harder  than  the 
seemingly  blindfold  way  in  which  the  darts  of  death 
fly  about  in  the  world.  The  days  of  him  who  honours 
his  parents  are  often  not  long,  and  the  promised  gift 
is  not  found  in  the  right  hand  of  wisdom.  The  stay 
of  the  house,  the  hope  of  the  family,  the  unselfish 
worker  for  others,  the  leader  in  discovery,  the  benefi- 
cent ruler  of  the  people,  is  taken  away  from  the  earth ; 
while  the  idler  and  the  selfish,  the  drone  and  the 
cumberer  of  the  ground,  the  empty-headed  fool  and 
the  designing  knave,  obtain  the  crown  of  an  old  age, 
though  it  be  not  venerable.  How  often  does  it  seem 
as  if  death  struck  down  the  one  in  a  household,  in 
a  village,  in  a  town,  in  a  country,  who  was  most 
sorely  needed,  and  spared  a  thousand  whom  nobody 
would  have  regretted  ?  Are  these  the  ways,  poor 
and  heart-broken  human  nature  is  tempted  to  cry — 
are  these  the  ways  of  a  heavenly  Father  ?  Does  He 
care  for  us  ?  May  not  those,  after  all,  be  right  who 
said  that  the  gods  lay  beside  their  nectar  careless  of 
this  world's  trials,  and  even  found 

"A  music  centred  in  a  doleful  song 
Steaming  up,  a  lamentation  and  an  ancient  tale  of  wrong  "  ?  * 

The  faith  is  strong  that  has  never  felt  this  temptation. 

Why,  we  ask,  is  the  old  epitaph,  "  But  shown  to  earth," 

*  Tennyson,  The  Lotus  Eaters. 


240  THE   RAISING   OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON. 

SO  often  true  ?  Why  is  there  so  often  a  survival  of  the 
unfittest— at  least,  for  all  the  nobler  ends  of  man- 
rather  than  of  the  fittest  ? 

We  ask  the  question,  and  of  ourselves  we  can  give 
it  no  answer.  We  may  reply  that,  as  a  rule,  vice 
shortens  and  temperance  prolongs  life,  but  the  ex- 
ceptional cases  are  numerous,  and  every  one  knows 
that  the  issue  of  life  and  death  is  not  in  his  own 
hands,  for  no  armour  that  man  can  make  is  without  a 
joint  where  the  dart  of  death  can  penetrate.  We  can 
say  no  more  than  that  this  is  a  dark  mystery,  and 
vaguely  hope  that  it  will  some  day  be  cleared  up. 
In  the  light  of  revelation  the  mystery  still  remains, 
but  it  becomes  less  dark.  One  doubt,  at  any  rate, 
disappears.  The  trouble  comes  by  the  Will  of  God. 
Jesus  was,  in  very  truth,  the  Resurrection  and  the 
Life.  It  needed  but  a  word  from  Him  to  bring  back 
the  spirit  when  it  had  fled  from  the  body.  Therefore 
He  permits  the  trial ;  He,  in  a  sense,  lays  the  burden 
upon  us.  Trial  it  is,  burden  it  is;  that  He  knows, 
that  He  acknowledged  by  His  tears  at  the  tomb  of 
Lazarus,  by  His  intervention  in  these  three  cases,  each 
of  which  would  have  been  numbered  by  us  among 
the  more  perplexing  and  peculiar  hardships.  Is  the 
little  one  gone,  just  when  childhood's  charm  is  sweetest? 
Is  the  young  man  gone,  just  when  we  miss  him  most  ? 


THE  RAISING   OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON.  241 

Is  the  worker  called,  just  when  our  need  is  sorest  ? 
Jesus  could  have  called  them  back.  To  Him  there  is 
no  limitation  of  place.  He  is  as  near  to  us  now  as  He 
was  to  that  mourning  procession  at  the  gate  of  Nain. 
Though  passed  away  from  this  earth,  He  has  not  lost 
the  power  of  sympathy  with  human  infirmity  and 
human  sorrow ;  and  if  He  let  these  trials  visit  us,  if 
He  let  our  bodies  be  racked  with  pain  or  our  hearts 
be  wrung  with  sorrow,  we  may  be  sure  that  this  is 
no  mere  chance,  no  accident  from  the  rolling  wheels 
of  some  vast  insensate  machine,  no  apathy  on  His 
part,  but  the  correction  of  a  loving  Hand,  which  will 
lead  us,  though  by  a  way  which  is  dark,  and  a  path 
which  is  hard,  to  a  land  better  than  earth,  beautiful 
as  it  often  is ;  to  a  life  better  than  this,  great  as  its 
pleasures  and  grand  as  its  opportunities  may  be. 
Earth  is  fair,  but  there  may  be  worlds  fairer  yet; 
work  is  sweet,  but  there  may  be  labour  yet  more 
welcome,  in  which  weariness  never  comes  and  failure 
is  never  known. 

Thus,  though  sorrow  and  pain  cannot  be  dismissed 
from  our  lives,  though  they  remain  as  bitter  facts  in 
the  economy  of  this  world,  which  no  faith  and  no 
trust  can  make  other  than  they  are,  still  the  life  of 
Jesus  has  enabled  us  to  bear  them  with  a  new  spirit, 
because  He  has  shown  the  world  more  clearly  than 

E 


242  THE  RAISING   OF  THE    WIDOW'S  SON. 

it  had  ever  known  before  that  all  does  not  end  with 
the  parting  breath,  and  that  notwithstanding  man's 
weaknesses,  follies,  and  infirmities.  He  loves  those  for 
whom  He  was  willing  to  die  with  a  love  which  passeth 
knowledge.  We,  then,  though  we  do  not  cease  to 
suffer  or  to  sorrow,  no  longer  do  this  as  those  who 
have  no  hope.  Believing  where  we  cannot  prove, 
trusting  where  we  cannot  understand,  we  can  cast 
all  our  care  upon  Him,  knowing  that  He  careth 
for  us;  and  though  we  are  often  forced  to  cry  with 
Him,  "  Let  this  cup  pass  from  me,"  we,  too,  learn  at 
last  to  add,  "  Nevertheless  not  my  will,  but  Thine,  be 
done." 


PATIENCE   IN   WORK.i 

"  Be  patient  therefore,  brethren,  unto  the  coming  of  the 
Lord.  Behokl,  the  husbandman  waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit 
of  the  earth,  and  hath  long  patience  for  it,  until  he  receive 
the  early  and  latter  rain." — St.  James  v.  7. 

The  key-note  sounded  in  these  words  is  one  which 
should  be  dominant  in  every  great  undertaking,  most 
of  all  in  that  to  which  you  dedicate  yourselves  to-day. 
It  would  be  easy  to  find  one  which,  like  the  sound  of 
a  trumpet,  seemed  at  first  sight  better  fitted  to  stir 
the  heart  and  awaken  enthusiasm,  but  none  which 
in  my  opinion  is  so  much  needed,  especially  at  the 
present  time. 

The  Apostle  bids  his  hearers  to  be  content  to  sow, 

and  to  wait  till  the  appointed   season   before  they 

expect   to   reap    the    fruits.      The    husbandman   in 

Palestine  sows  the  seed   in  the  late   autumn;  then 

come  the    November  rains,  when  he  must  perforce 

leave  it  to  lie  in  the  ground.    Again,  at  the  end  of  the 

'  Preached  at  the  Ordination  in  Manchester  Cathedral  on  the  Fourth 
Sunday  in  Advent,  1887. 

243 


244  PATIENCE  IN  WORK. 

winter,  there  is  another  rainy  period,  preventing  field- 
work  ;  then,  in  the  month  of  May,  some  half  a  year 
after  the  sowing,  he  puts  the  sickle  into  the  corn. 
During  this  period  he  has  had  to  work,  to  wait,  and 
even  to  watch,  knowing  always  that  he  could  not 
accelerate  the  ripening  by  a  single  day.  Laws  were 
in  operation  over  which  he  had  no  control.  The 
most  that  he  could  do  was  to  give  them  free  play 
by  removing  impediments  and  by  counteracting 
obstacles. 

The  Apostle  refers  us  to  a  law  of  nature,  that  is, 
to  a  law  of  God.  As  was  the  wont  of  his  Master,  he 
grounds  his  teaching  upon  the  order  of  nature.  To 
this  we  are  constantly  referred  for  lessons  in  the 
earlier  days  of  Christianity ;  for  the  divorce  of  what 
God  hath  joined  together  is  the  outcome  of  a  later 
age,  and  a  less  healthy  faith.  The  more  carefully  we 
consider  it,  the  more  shall  we  see  that  nature  has 
analogies  with  grace,  and  that  diverse  as  they  may 
seem  in  their  modes  of  manifestation,  there  is  an 
underlying  unity  in  the  spiritual,  like  that  in  the 
material  forces. 

What  laws,  then,  do  we  see  working  in  nature  ? 
Two  especially — the  law  of  continuity  and  the  law  of 
development.  The  law  of  continuity  :  that  is  to  say, 
that  every  event  at  any  time  is  the  outcome  of  a  long 


PATIENCE   IN  WORK.  245 

series  of  antecedent  causes  ;  the  law  of  development : 
that  from  the  germ  comes  the  seedling,  from  the 
mature  plant  the  flower,  and  from  the  flower  at  last 
the  fruit. 

Students  of  science  for  years  past  have  been 
engaged  in  deciphering  the  picture-writing  of  the 
book  of  Nature.  The  result  of  their  labours  has  been 
to  carry  us  back  into  a  far-distant  past.  We  are 
enabled  to  behold  the  surface  of  this  globe  as  it 
solidifies  in  cooling,  to  watch  the  gathering  of  seas  in 
its  depressions,  until  after  many  years  it  becomes 
habitable  by  living  creatures.  These  at  first  are  simple 
in  organization,  less  specialized  in  their  functions 
than  those  of  succeeding  ages.  As  time  proceeds  we 
note  the  appearance  of  new  types  of  plants  and 
animals,  higher  in  the  scale  of  being — "  the  old  order 
changing,  yielding  place  to  new,"  until  at  last  man 
enters  upon  the  scene,  the  first  being  of  whom  it 
could  be  said  that  he  was  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
In  the  uniformity  of  this  order  there  are  indeed  minor 
catastrophic  changes ;  birth  and  death  also  are  dis- 
continuities in  the  individual  life,  but  with  these 
exceptions  continuity  and  development  are  the  laws 
which  we  formulate  by  induction  from  our  observa- 
tion of  the  order  of  nature. 

The    testimony    of    history    leads    to    the    same 


246  PATIENCE  IN  WORK. 

conclusion,  when  its  facts  receive  inductive  treatment, 
and  this,  as  the  only  scientific  method,  is  alone  likely 
to  produce  any  really  useful  results.  Those  un- 
numbered centuries  which  fade  away  into  the  distant 
past,  the  fragmental  records  of  which  are  being  slowly 
recovered  and  pieced  together  by  students — those 
centuries  exhibit  one  long  preparation  for  the  coming 
of  Christ,  and  the  establishment  of  a  spiritual 
kingdom.  In  those  distant  ages  we  can  now  see 
men,  as  it  were,  feeling  in  the  darkness  after  God, 
gradually  laying  aside  the  imperfect  conceptions  and 
puerile  superstitions  of  the  childhood  of  a  race.  We 
can  watch  the  growth  of  a  deeper  sense  of  human 
un worthiness,  of  a  clearer  apprehension  of  the  Divine 
perfection,  of  a  purer  morality,  of  a  more  assured 
faith,  and  of  an  eternal  hope.  So  that  in  the  Gospel 
all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  the  teaching  of  sage 
and  prophet  alike  is  embodied,  and  we  recognize 
thankfully  and  hopefully  the  work  of  the  preparation 
of  man  in  the  long  period  of  the  dawn  which  heralded 
the  rising  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness. 

But  even  then  the  process  of  development  was  not 
ended.  In  the  order  of  nature  the  actual  rising  of 
the  sun  is  an  epoch  of  rapid  passage  from  shadow 
into  light ;  yet  as  the  hours  advance  towards  noon, 
that  light  increases  in  brilliancy  and  intensity.     So 


PATIENCE  IN   WORK.  247 

has  it  been  in  the  centuries  which  have  elapsed  since 
the  first  great  Advent.     True,  that  after  the  analogy 
of  the  natural  day  there  have  been  clouds  which  have 
obscured  the  light ;  true,  that  the  darkest  and  most 
misleading  in  their  effects,  like  the  fogs  of  a  great 
city,  have  been  mainly  of  man's  own  raising ;  true, 
that  the  tendency  towards  deterioration   or   hurtful 
exaggeration,  bringing  as  its  penalty  the  "Nemesis 
of    disproportion,"   has    produced    so    much    sorrow, 
suffering,   and   superstition,  that   we   are    sometimes 
tempted  to  think  that  no  sacrifice  would  be  too  great 
could  we  recover  the  clear  light  and  the  fresh  coolness 
of  those  early  hours.     Yet,  although  these  evil  ten- 
dencies have  done  their  worst,  although  too  often  the 
spiritual  guides    of   our  race    have   led    their  flocks 
back   into  air  infected  by  pagan   idolatries,  instead 
of  upwards  on  the  slopes  of  the  Mount  of  God  ;  yet, 
notwithstanding,  that   race  as  a  whole  has  attained 
a  higher  standard  of  moral  consciousness,  and  to  us 
a  better,  because  a  less  imperfect,  knowledge  o£  God 
is  possible  than  it  was  to   the  Christian  of  the  first 
century. 

We  often  hear  the  lament  that  this  is  a  sceptical 
age.  We  are  told  that  men  no  longer  listen  to  the 
voice  of  the  Church.  Certainly  when  her  repre- 
sentatives talk  nonsense,  men  tell  them  so  in  very 


248  PATIENCE   IN  WORK. 

plain  terms.  If  that  were  all,  I  for  one  should  make 
no  complaint.  The  only  difference  I  can  recognize 
between  ordinary  nonsense  and  religious  nonsense  is 
that  the  latter  is  more  mischievous  than  the  former, 
and  so  should  have  the  prompter  treatment  from  the 
besom  of  destruction.  But  undoubtedly,  apart  from 
this  prevalence  to  outspoken  criticism,  in  itself  a 
healthy  feature,  and  salutary,  if  unpleasant,  to  those 
exposed  to  it — the  present  is  an  anxious  time.  He 
would  be  a  bold  man  who  would  venture  to  predict 
what  will  be  the  state  of  England  in  the  beginning 
of  the  coming  century.  A  cloud  has  been  rising  and 
gathering  for  some  years,  and  now  darkens  the  sky ; 
a  cloud,  where  the  destructive  electricity  of  rapine 
and  murder  and  the  vilest  tyranny  is  concealed  in 
the  vapours  of  high-sounding  phrases  of  universal 
benevolence  and  virtue.  But  if  this  cloud,  as  has 
happened  before,  and  I  pray  may  happen  again,  be 
dissipated  by  the  unquenchable  light  of  Christ's  Gospel, 
then  I  predict  there  will  be  for  the  coming  age 
a  stronger  faith  :  for  it  will  be  founded  on  a  clearer 
knowledge,  it  will  be  the  faith  of  the  man  as  compared 
with  the  faith  of  the  youth. 

Into  the  arena  of  contest,  at  this  important  crisis 
of  our  national  history,  you  are  this  day  about  to 
descend.      Let    me,  then,  for   a   few    moments,  call 


PATIENCE  IN  WORK.  249 

attention  to  a  very  great  danger  and  a  very  great 
temptation  to  which  you  will  all  be  exposed.  The 
danger  and  the  temptation  are  the  outcome  of  an 
infection  in  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  it  is  one 
suggested  by  the  text  which  I  have  chosen,  and  the 
remarks  which  I  have  been  making. 

In  one  word,  a  fault,  perhaps  the  fault,  of  the  age 
is  impatience.  Whatever  is  done  in  the  present 
day,  we  must  have  ''  results,"  as  we  call  them.  Well, 
I  am  as  opposed  as  any  man  can  be  to  a  waste  either 
of  time  or  of  money,  but  I  consider  worthless  results, 
bad  results,  as  in  some  ways  worse  than  no  results  at 
all.  A  house  built  in  a  hurry  is  pretty  sure  to  double 
its  cost  in  endless  repairs  before  many  years  are 
over,  and  is  very  apt  to  tumble  down  on  the  heads  of 
its  occupants.  So  is  it  with  all  the  work  inspired  by 
an  impatient  spirit.  God  has  set  in  the  world  His 
laws  of  continuity  and  development.  We,  in  our 
conceit,  imagine  that  we  can  overrule  those  laws. 
You  may  as  reasonably  flatter  yourselves  that  you 
can  gather  summer  fruits  in  this  country  for 
Christmas  Day,  or  alter  the  position  of  the  earth's 
axis  of  rotation. 

By  this  feverish  impatience  the  whole  community 
is  more  or  less  infected,  but  it  works  thus  on  Christian 
societies.     Our  own  branch  of  the  Church,  in  common 


250  PATIENCE  IN  WORK. 

with  other  religious  communities,  has  become  of  late 
years  keenly  conscious  of  past  shortcomings,  and  is 
animated  by  an  earnest  zeal  to  win  to  Christ  the 
multitudes  in  this  and  other  lands  who  are  now  living 
literally  without  God  in  the  world.  Against  such  a 
zeal  I  would  be  the  last  to  protest,  but  must  never- 
theless impress  upon  you  that  if  divorced  from 
discretion  it  may  do  much  harm,  possibly  so  much 
as  to  overcome  the  good.  '"'We  must  attract  the 
people,"  is  the  constant  cry  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
at  the  present  day.  Certainly,  but  how  ?  Are  any 
means  justifiable  ?  No  one  in  his  senses  would 
answer  that  question  in  the  affirmative.  So  it  is 
tacitly  admitted  that  there  are  means  which  it  is 
neither  wise  nor  right  to  employ,  and  we  must  regard 
them  as  well  as  the  end.  Now,  with  a  great  number  of 
earnest  workers  at  the  present  day  the  means  most  in 
favour  are  founded  on  an  appeal  only  to  the  emotions. 
This  appeal  takes  very  diverse,  sometimes  antagonistic, 
forms.  By  some  men  the  results  and  consequences 
of  sin  are  depicted  in  such  glowing  terms  that  the 
auditors  are  lashed  into  an  hysteric  condition,  which, 
transitory  though  it  be,  is  assumed  to  indicate  a 
revolutionary  change  in  the  whole  nature.  By  others 
it  is  thought  that,  by  some  mode  of  localizing  the 
Divine  Presence  on  earth,  the  sense  of  rever^jr^e  may 


PATIENCE  IN  WORK.  251 

be  deepened,  and  men  be  less  forgetful  of  Him.  The 
consecrated  wafer  in  one  branch  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  the  eucharistic  rite  in  another,  with  all  the 
attendant  ideas  (or  superstitions,  as  some  would  call 
them)  concerning  sacred  vestments,  mystic  rites, 
symbolical  worship,  and  a  miracle-working  priesthood, 
are  supposed  to  replace  the  Temple  and  the  Shechinah 
of  the  Jewish  Church. 

Neither  of  these  methods  is  in  any  sense  a  modern 
discovery.  The  latter  certainly  has  had  a  long  trial, 
and  the  verdict  of  history  is  adverse  to  its  claims. 
By  it  you  may  snatch  a  temporary  victory,  but  you 
will  have  to  pay  dearly  for  it.  Fighting  the  demon 
of  infidelity  with  the  broken  crutch  of  superstition 
in  the  long  run  has  not  succeeded  in  the  past,  and  is 
still  less  likely  to  do  so  in  the  future.  History 
declares  that  neither  method  was  employed  by  the 
most  successful  missionaries,  who  also  worked  under 
the  greatest  difficulties — I  mean  the  Apostles  and 
their  immediate  followers ;  it  declares  that  growth  in 
morality  and  in  spiritual  knowledge  have  always 
been  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  continuity  and 
development.  Bear,  then,  these  in  mind.  They  are 
God's  laws,  and  you  cannot  alter  them.  First  the 
seed  cast  upon  the  earth,  then  the  green  blade,  then 
the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear,  and .  at  last. 


252  PATIENCE  IN  WORK. 

when  the  fruit  is  ripe,  the  season  of  harvest.  Like 
unto  this,  we  are  told  by  our  Master,  is  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Therefore  be  patient.  Be  content  to  work 
along  the  lines  which  God  has  prescribed. 

But,  you  may  say,  I  want  to  see  the  fruits  of  my 
labours.  A  very  natural  feeling.  I  suppose  every 
one  who  plants  a  tree  would  like  to  sit  under  the 
shadow  of  it ;  that,  however,  is  not  given  to  us.  But, 
you  may  say,  this  neighbour  of  mine,  by  preaching 
a  gospel  of  hell-fire  amidst  a  blare  of  trumpets,  collects 
thousands  to  listen  to  him ;  and  that  neighbour,  by 
the  attractions  of  music,  incense,  and  vestments,  gets 
his  church  crowded.  Well,  it  is  not  the  making  of 
proselytes,  but  what  we  make  of  them,  which  matters. 
For  that  statement  we  have  pretty  good  authority. 
But,  you  may  say,  men  praise  those  teachers  as  earnest 
and  energetic ;  they  will  never  recognize  my  work. 
Recognize  your  work  !  what  does  that  matter  ?  The 
important  thing  to  the  world  is  that  the  work  should 
be  done  well,  not  that  it  should  be  recognized.  Never 
mind  whether  you  are  praised,  whether  you  may  be 
tracked  across  the  country  by  newspaper  paragraphs : 
take  care  that  you  are  not  justly  blamed  :  that  is  the 
only  thing  which  you  need  mind.  The  pulpit  of  a 
church  is  not  the  stage  of  a  theatre,  the  sphere  of 
a  parson's  work  is  not  the  area  of  a  circus,  and  even 


PATIENCE  IN  WORK.  253 

on  these  latter  he  is  not  the  best  actor  who  plays  his 
part  to  the  gallery.  Above  all,  do  not  make  the  fatal 
mistake  of  supposing  that  good  intentions  will  render 
harmless  any  folly.  I  sometimes  hear  it  said,  So-and- 
so  is  such  an  earnest,  zealous,  well-meaning  man,  that 
we  must  not  criticize  or  check  him.  I  am  sorry  to 
say  good  intentions  will  not  alter  the  natural  order  of 
events.  The  best  intentions  will  not  save  your  finger 
from  being  burnt  if  you  put  it  in  the  fire,  and  all  the 
zeal  in  the  world  will  not  avert  the  evil  consequences 
if  that  zeal  is  wrongly  directed.  The  words  of  our 
great  dramatist  have  a  terrible  truth — 

"  The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them, 
The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones." 

So  long  as  a  man  of  noble  aims  but  with  mis- 
directed energies  is  acting  as  leader,  that  which  is 
hurtful  in  his  system  is  neutralized  by  his  personal 
goodness ;  but  when  he  is  gone,  and  inferior  men  take 
his  place,  the  evil  part  develops  and  the  good  withers, 
because  the  one  is  innate  and  the  other  adventitious. 
Antony  the  hermit  and  Simeon  of  the  pillar,  Francis 
of  Assisi  and  Ignatius  Loyola,  not  to  mention  many 
others  among  the  fathers  and  doctors  of  the  Church 
Catholic,  were  men  of  the  most  earnest  piety  and  the 
very  best  intentions,  but  their  mistakes  have  borne 
and  continue  to  bear  a  prolific  crop  of  hurtful  fruit. 


254  PATIENCE  IN  WORK. 

Undertake,  then,  your  work  this  day  in  the  spirit 
of  patience,  in  the  spirit  of  self-abnegation,  in  full 
trust  in  God.  Let  not  one  word  which  I  have  spoken 
chill  your  enthusiasm.  I  only  seek  to  save  you  from 
misdirecting  it.  Never  was  there  a  time  when  there 
was  a  grander  task  before  the  clergy,  or  when  they 
could  do  more  to  save  their  country  from  a  great 
catastrophe.  The  condition  of  things  in  England 
bears  a  very  dangerous  resemblance  to  that  in  France 
before  the  great  Revolution.  Not  only  is  there  the 
same  widespread  poverty,  the  same  unequal  dis- 
tribution of  wealth,  the  same  sundering  of  interests 
and  classes ;  but  there  is  the  same  hysteric  senti- 
mentality, the  same  hazy  morality,  the  same  confusion 
of  the  laws  of  right  and  wrong,  as  there  was  in  that 
country  shortly  before  the  time  when  men  sobbed 
forth  maudlin  platitudes  about  liberty  and  fraternity, 
and  then  went  away  to  torture  and  murder  those  who 
differed  from  them.  It  is  your  business,  as  was  that 
of  the  prophets  of  old,  to  tell  your  people  in  no  un- 
certain voice  that  God's  laws  of  right  and  wrong  are 
immutable,  and  that  no  amount  of  verbose  oratory  or 
flaccid  sentimentality  can  make  a  lie  into  truth,  can 
ennoble  a  base  deed,  can  change  vile  tools  into 
honourable  implements.  It  is  your  business  to 
guide   your  people  to  a  more  perfect  sense   of  the 


PATIENCE   IN  WORK.  255 

omnipresence,  the  omnipotence,  and  the  omniscience 
of  the  all-loving  Father,  instead  of  leading  them  back 
towards  the  worship  of  idols  and  the  conceptions  of 
times  of  ignorance.  You  must  be  content  to  work 
on  in  silence,  for  the  path  which  I  have  described 
will  not  be  that  of  earthly  fame ;  in  unpopularity, 
for  the  prophet's  task  is  a  thankless  one;  in  hope,  for 
you  will  be  only  a  sower  of  seed.  But  its  fruit  will 
some  day  ripen ;  you  will  not  gather  it,  but  others 
will.  In  your  lifetime,  however,  you  will  have  this 
reward,  that  by  degrees  you  will  win  the  affection 
and  confidence  of  many,  the  respect  of  all  whose 
respect  is  worth  having ;  and  when  you  cease  from 
labour,  you  may  say — "  I  have  done  what  I  could ;  it 
has  been  little,  yet  I  did  it  with  all  my  might,  and  so 
in  God's  hands  I  leave  the  issue.  I  have  striven,  0 
gracious  Saviour,  to  tread,  though  at  a  long  distance, 
in  Thy  footsteps ;  to  work,  though  so  imperfectly, 
after  Thy  example.  Failure  rather  than  success  has 
seemed  my  lot ;  yet  I  know  that  truth  is  stronger 
than  falsehood,  that  right  will  at  last  prevail  over 
wrong,  and  in  the  light  of  Thy  presence  all  evil  will 
be  consumed.  The  seed  which  I  have  sown  has 
borne  but  little  fruit  in  the  brief  span  of  this  earthly 
life,  yet  I  trust  to  see  a  more  abundant  harvest 
in  that  better  land  where  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest." 


THE   LILIES    OF   THE    FIELD.^ 

"  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow  ;  they  toil 
not,  neither  do  they  spin  :  and  yet  I  say  unto  you.  That  even 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these." — 
St.  Matt.  vi.  28,  29. 

Life  had  its  anxieties  nineteen  centuries  since  no 
less  than  it  has  now  ;  men  and  women  had  to  toil  for 
food  and  for  clothing,  and  sometimes  knew  not  whence 
to-morrow's  bread  would  come.  But  then,  even  as 
now,  they  were  apt  to  weary  themselves  by  seeking 
more  than  a  sufficiency  ;  to  deprive  life  of  all  its  light, 
in  order  that  they  might  heap  up  riches,  might  fare 
sumptuously  every  day,  and  go  clothed  in  purple  and 
fine  linen.  Here,  then,  we  are  told  on  Whom  to  cast 
our  care  in  those  anxieties  which  may  be  called  lawful, 
and  the  unwisdom  of  those  which  are  unlawful ;  we 
are  led  to  see  the  Fatherhood  of  God  in  the  fowls  of 
the  air  and  in  the  flowers  of  the  field. 

But  on   the  general   principle    inculcated   by  this 

^  The  "Fairchild  Lecture,"  preached  in  Shoreditch  Church, 
Whitsun  Tuesday,  1890. 

256 


THE  LILIES  OF   THE  FIELD.  i^-j 

reference,  I  do  not  now  purpose  to  speak.  I  shall 
restrict  myself  to  a  few  thoughts  which  seem  appro- 
priate to  the  present  occasion,  and  arise  out  of  the 
example  selected  by  the  Saviour  to  show  the  un- 
wisdom of  anxious  thought  for  this  world's  wealth. 

"Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field."  What  flowers 
were  they,  we  naturally  ask,  from  which  the  listeners 
were  to  take  a  lesson  ?  Were  they  conspicuous  for 
their  beauty  ?  Did  they  rise  high  above  the  general 
level,  like  the  butterfly-orchis  or  the  purple  loose- 
strife; or  were  they  common  but  inconspicuous,  like  the 
daisy  of  our  lawns,  or  the  celandine  of  our  meadows  ? 
Was  the  appeal  to  something  which  the  hearers  could 
hardly  help  admiring,  or  to  something  which  they 
might  almost  despise  ?  Was  it  as  though  the  Saviour 
had  said,  ''  You  cannot  rival  the  beauty  of  the  orchid  ;  " 
or  was  it,  "  Adorn  yourselves  as  you  will,  you  are  still 
far  less  fair  than  the  daisy,  insignificant  as  it  may 
seem  in  your  eyes  "  ?  Either  sense  is  possible,  and 
we  have  no  means  of  knowing  which  is  intended. 
But  it  is  more  probable,  I  think,  that  the  appeal  was 
made  to  some  flowers  which,  at  any  rate,  were  con- 
spicuous enough  to  catch  the  eyes  of  those  who  were 
listening — flowers  which  at  that  very  time  were 
dappling  the  slopes  in  view  of  the  hill  on  which  the 
crowd  was  gathered.  There  are  many  such  in 
S 


2S8  THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD, 

Palestine.     They  are  called  lilies  in  our  Bible.     This 
is   the  English  name   by  which  the  original    Greek 
word  is  always  rendered,  but  of  course  we  cannot 
assert  that  the  terms  in  the  two  languages  are  exactly 
identical.     The  Greek  word  probably  would  be  em- 
ployed more  generally  and  vaguely  than  the  English 
one ;  it  might  include  some  plants  which  we  should 
not  designate  as  lilies,  and  we  must  remember  that 
it  is  only  a  translation  of  the  actual  word  which  was 
used  by  our  Lord,  for  we  cannot  doubt  that  He  was 
speaking  in  the  ordinary  language  of  the  country — a 
dialect  of   Hebrew.     We  should  naturally,  I  think, 
look  for  such  a  flower  as  our  daffodil  or  primrose; 
one  which  was  common  in  Galilee,  which  was  suffi- 
ciently large  to  be  seen  at  some  distance,  and  which 
was   attractive  in  appearance.      Of  these,  travellers 
tell  us,  there  are  several.     Bulbous  plants  abound  on 
the  hilly  pastures  of  Northern  Palestine  in  the  spring- 
time— such  as   the   tulip,  the   fritillary,   the   star  of 
Bethlehem,  the  iris,  and  the  amaryllis.     There  is  also, 
in  Galilee,  a  scarlet  anemone,  of  which  it  is  said  by 
one  traveller,  well  competent  to  express  an  opinion, 
"  There  have  been  many  claimants  for  the  distinctive 
honour  of  'the  lilies  of  the  field;'  but  while  it  seems 
most  natural  to  view  the  term  as  a  generic  expression, 
yet  if  one  special  flower  was  more  likely  than  another 


THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD.  259 

to  catch  the  eye  of  the  Lord  as  He  spoke,  no  one 
familiar  with  the  flora  of  Palestine  in  springtime  can 
hesitate  in  assigning  the  place  to  the  anemone."  ^ 

Yet  this  flower  of  the  field,  whatever  it  may  have 
been,  is  declared  to  surpass  in  beauty  "  Solomon  in  all 
his  glory."  Think  for  one  moment  of  the  comparison 
which  is  here  challenged.  We  must  remember  the 
customs  of  past  times  and  of  Eastern  nations  in  order 
to  appreciate  it  fully.  Among  ourselves  there  is 
usually  little  splendour  of  dress  to  mark  rank  and 
even  royalty.  In  olden  time,  and  in  the  East,  it  was 
not  so.  That  a  king  would  appear  in  public  so  clothed 
as  to  be  with  difficulty  distinguished  from  one  of  his 
ministers,  or  one  of  his  generals,  would  have  seemed 
a  strange  idea.  Then  splendour  of  apparel  went  with 
high  rank,  and  "Solomon  in  all  his  glory"  would 
mean  at  least  as  much  as  the  "  Queen  in  her  corona- 
tion robes "  would  now  signify.  More  than  this,  the 
reign  of  Solomon,  in  popular  tradition,  was  the  golden 
age  of  Israel.  It  was  literally  so ;  the  shields  of  his 
household  guards,  the  ornaments  of  his  ivory  throne, 
the  plate  at  his  table,  were  all  of  gold.  "  Gold  came 
to  him  in  abundance ;  as  for  silver,  it  was  not  anything 
accounted  of  in  the  days  of  Solomon."  Yet  the  glory 
of  the  central  figure  in  all  this  splendour — a  splendour 
*  Canon  Tristram,  Land  of  Israel,  ch.  xviii. 


26o  THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD. 

which  overpowered  the  spirit  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
— is  said  to  be  surpassed  by  the  flower  which  in  each 
returning  spring  blossoms  in  its  uncounted  thousands 
on  the  hill-pastures  around  the  Galilsean  lake. 

It  is  true ;  and  after  more  than  eighteen  centuries 
of  progress  we  know  its  truth,  far  better  than  those 
who  heard,  perhaps  half  incredulously,  the  words  of 
Christ.  God's  work  may  be  tried  by  a  standard 
which  man's  work  cannot  bear.  This  is  made  for  the 
eyes  of  man.  The  work  of  God  can  endure  a  far  more 
severe  test,  as  though  it  were  designed  for  powers  of 
intelligence  far  more  perfect.  The  perfection  of  the 
one  is  only  relative ;  of  the  other,  so  far  as  we  know, 
absolute  of  its  kind.  Familiar  as  the  facts  may  be  to 
some  of  you,  it  is,  I  think,  worth  while  to  contrast,  for 
a  few  minutes,  man's  works  of  art  and  God's  works  in 
nature.  To  take  a  single  example.  I  have  seen  the 
image  of  a  small  sewing-needle,  greatly  magnified, 
projected  upon  a  screen.  You  would  think  that  if 
anything  would  be  sharp  and  smooth  and  finished,  it 
would  be  the  point  of  this.  I  saw  the  outline  of  a 
small  mast,  with  its  upper  end  trimmed  to  a  rough 
spike,  which  terminated  in  a  rather  jagged  tooth  or 
wisp  of  metal.  Far  different  is  it  with  the  structures 
of  plant  or  of  animal.  The  more  these  are  magnified, 
the  more  marvellous,  the  more  exquisite,  they  appear. 


THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD,  261 

That  this  is  simple  truth,  most  people,  at  the  present 
day,  can  sometimes  ascertain  for  themselves,  but  there 
is  one  test  which  can  be  yet  more  readily  applied. 
A  fairly  good  pocket-lens  is  generally  not  difficult  to 
obtain.  Look  through  this  at  a  few  of  the  com- 
monest wayside  flowers.  Pick,  if  you  like,  a  daisy 
from  the  nearest  plot  of  grass  on  which  you  may  walk. 
To  your  eye  it  seems  one  of  the  homeliest  of  flowers — 
a  little  circular  cluster  of  yellow  dots  with  a  fringe  of 
white  petals  just  edged  with  pink.  If  these  were 
made  of  the  finest  tissues  of  the  loom,  if  they  were 
painted  by  the  hand  of  the  most  cunning  artist,  they 
would  seem,  when  largely  magnified,  coarse  fabrics 
like  sackcloth,  coarsely  spotted  with  colour.  Not  so 
the  petal  of  the  daisy  ;  its  texture  becomes  yet  more 
exquisite ;  its  coloured  edge  breaks  up  into  granula- 
tions yet  more  and  more  delicate  in  tint  and  in  size, 
rendering  the  transition  yet  more  and  more  har- 
monious. Turn  then  to  those  spots  on  the  yellow 
disc;  each  becomes  a  perfect  little  flower,  revealing 
many  a  complicated  detail,  of  the  existence  of  which 
you  previously  had  no  conception. 

Man  often  boasts  of  the  wonders  which  he  has 
done.  Comparing  himself  with  himself,  the  civilized 
man  with  the  savage ;  looking  at  the  complicated 
apparatus  which  he  has  contrived — his  machines,  his 


262  THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD. 

railroads,  his  telegraphs, — he  begins  to  think  that  to 
his  greatness  there  is  no  limit,  and  that  he  may 
worship  himself  as  God.  Can  there  be  any  rebuke 
more  gentle,  yet  more  crushing,  than  this :  "The 
common  wayside  flowers,  at  which  you  scarce  cast 
a  glance,  which  even  your  sheep  and  oxen  trample 
underfoot, — these  are  far  more  wonderful  than  all 
your  contrivances,  far  more  exquisitely  finished  than 
any  of  your  works.  Poor  vain  insect !  for  in  com- 
parison with  this  vast  universe  you  are  nothing 
more ;  there  is  but  one  thing  wonderful  about  you — 
that  which  you  do  not  make  yourself — your  own 
body  "  ! 

Another  lesson  may  be  drawn  from  this  saying  of 
the  Saviour.  Here,  as  on  more  than  one  occasion. 
He  appeals  in  His  teaching  to  the  natural  world. 
But  some  persons  tell  us  that  this  is  everywhere 
tainted  with  sin ;  nay,  they  go  so  far  as  to  hint  that 
it  is  so  corrupt  that  the  very  study  of  nature  will  lead 
us  away  from  God.  They  assert,  not  indeed  ex- 
pressly, but  in  so  many  words,  that  if  in  truth  God 
were  the  Maker  of  this  world — as  they  are  obliged  to 
admit — He  allowed  it  at  a  very  early  period  to  be 
wrested  from  His  dominion  by  an  alien  and  an  evil 
power.  It  would  not  be  difficult,  but  it  would  take 
too   long   a   time,   to   show   that   this   idea — a   very 


THE  LILIES  OF   THE  FIELD.  283 

common  one  among  Christian  people — arises  from 
confused  thinking  and  mistaken  conceptions  as  to  the 
nature  of  sin  and  evil ;  on  the  present  occasion  it  will 
suffice  to  say  that  Christ's  frequent  appeal  to  the 
natural  world  could  not  have  been  made  if  it  had 
ceased  to  be  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  If,  indeed, 
the  devil  has  become  lord  of  any  spot  on  earth,  it  is 
not  where  the  lilies  of  the  field  mostly  do  grow,  or 
the  birds  of  the  air  make  their  nests,  but  it  is  where 
the  buildings  reared  by  man  stand  thickest  on  the 
ground.  We  talk  sometimes  of  consecrating  places  to 
God's  service,  but  except  as  a  precautionary  measure 
to  save  them  from  man's  desecration,  or  a  symbolical 
cleansing  from  man's  defilement,  the  ceremony  is  idle 
and  meaningless.  The  earth  itself  is  consecrated  ;  it 
is  a  sacred  thing,  for  it  is  as  it  came  from  God's  hand. 
The  lilies  of  the  field,  if  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 
spin,  so  also  they  spoil  not,  neither  do  they  sin.  Men 
sometimes  profess  to  hear  the  voice  of  God  in  the 
thunder  and  the  tempest,  but  they  are  too  often  deaf 
to  that  still  small  voice  which  sounds  in  Nature's 
most  silent  hour,  alike  from  tree  and  flower,  from 
forest  and  from  field. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  these  words  suggest 
a  lesson  of  humility.  Man  is  sent  to  learn  from  the 
commonest  and  least  esteemed  among  the   works  of 


264  THE   LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD. 

God ;  not  from  the  choice  flowers  of  the  garden,  but 
from  those  which  spring  up  unheeded  in  every  pasture. 
We  talk  sometimes  as  if  this  world  were  made  for  us 
alone.  If  so,  there  is  a  strange  profusion,  almost  a 
wastefulness,  in  the  provision  for  us,  its  lords  and 
masters.  Year  after  year  the  earth  puts  on  its  robe  of 
many  colours,  yet  how  few  regard  it !  There  are  vast 
forests,  where  for  century  after  century,  generation 
after  generation,  the  giant  trees  have  grown  and  died; 
there  are  wide  plains,  there  are  broad  chains  of  rolling 
hills,  which  year  after  year  have  been  gardens  of 
flowers  on  which  the  eye  of  man  has  never  looked. 
Even  among  the  mountain  solitudes,  amid  regions 
of  snow  and  ice,  when  we  reach  some  crag  on  which 
hitherto  the  foot  of  man  has  never  been  set,  we  find 
the  crannies  among  the  rough  rocks  bright  with  the 
blossoms  of  some  lowly  but  lovely  alpine  plant.  Nay, 
the  earth  was  decked  in  all  the  glory  of  flowers  for 
myriad  years  or  ever  it  was  seen  by  the  eye  of  man. 
Were  these,  are  these,  for  him  alone  ?  It  may  be  so, 
and  doubtless  the  idea  is  flattering  to  our  complacency ; 
but  on  what  grounds  do  we  make  this  assumption  ? 
Why  may  there  not  be  those  who  see  with  clearer 
eyes  than  ours  ?  Why  must  we  suppose  that  the 
shout  of  joy  which  the  sons  of  God  are  said  to  have 
raised  over  the  completion  of  the  work  of  creation 


THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD.  265 

has  died  away  into  an  eternal  silence,  in  watching  the 
never-ending  recurrence  of  its  effects,  and  the  mani- 
festations of  the  Will  of  God  'I 

''Love  not  the  world,"  we  are  told;  but  the  words 
mean  the  order  of  man's  contriving,  not  that  of  God's 
ordaining.  In  the  old  creation  story  it  is  said  that 
God  planted  a  garden,  wherein  He  placed  the  man  and 
the  woman.  Like  all  the  rest  of  that  story,  this  seems 
to  me  symbolical.  Face  to  face  with  the  works  of 
God,  there  was  the  fitting  abode  of  innocence  ;  there 
communion  with  Him  could  best  be  held.  Of  this 
parable  we  have  lost  sight.  We  have  come  to 
associate  the  worship  of  Him  with  buildings  made 
with  hands,  forgetting  that  the  Lord  is  in  every  place, 
and  not  least  in  those  which  are  of  His  own  adorning. 
The  houses  which  we  build  are  apt  to  become  temples 
of  idols,  when  we  forget  that  after  all  th^y  are  only 
concessions  to  man's  infirmity ;  for  God  may  be  found, 
as  He  was  by  the  saints  of  old,  on  any  country-side, 
where  man  can  possess  his  soul  in  silence  and  listen 
for  that  still  small  voice,  which  may  be  heard  to  whisper 
from  every  green  slope  no  less  than  among  the  wild 
crags  of  Horeb.  We  need  to  be  reminded  of  this,  for 
year  by  year  in  our  densely  crowded  land,  with  the 
gorged  but  ever-growing  towns,  it  becomes  more 
difficult  to  consider  the  lilies  of  the  field.     No  longer 


266  THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD. 

is  the  country-side  within  easy  reach  of  the  Londoner ; 
it  is  a  journey  of  miles  before  he  can  get  clear  of  the 
houses,  and,  what  is  worse,  the  edge  of  a  great  town 
is  more  hideous  than  the  inner  part.  Far  beyond  its 
border,  almost  every  spot  is  fenced  or  walled  or  barred, 
because  men  fear  the  inroads  of  those  brutes  in  human 
form,  which  a  great  city  is  constantly  vomiting  forth 
for  the  destruction  of  all  that  is  fair  and  beautiful. 
For  miles  around  London  every  wild  flower  is  dis- 
appearing— destroyed  either  of  reckless  selfishness, 
or  of  sheer  wantonness,  by  the  excursionist  or  by  those 
prowling  plunderers,  who  bring  back  the  uprooted 
plants,  and  obtain  as  public  nuisances  a  miserable 
living.  They  are  half  protected  in  their  errands  of 
destruction  by  the  flabby  sentimentalism  of  the 
present  day,  which  is  ever  ready  to  sympathize  with 
the  breaker,  and  to  blame  the  enforcer  of  the  law. 
They  are  encouraged  by  the  thoughtlessness  which 
enables  them  to  find  a  sale  for  their  spoil,  for  if  there 
were  no  purchasers  the  wild  flowers  would  be  left  to 
grow.  If  the  destruction  of  these  goes  on  for  another 
generation  as  it  has  done  in  the  last,  your  children 
or  grandchildren  will  have  to  content  themselves  with 
considering  the  lilies  of  the  gardens  or  of  the  parks, 
for  there  will  be  nothing  left  for  them  in  the  fields 
except  nettles  and  docks. 


THE  LILIES  OF  THE  FIELD.  267 

But  I  must  admit  that  sometimes  those  who  should 
know  better  set  an  example  of  evil  influence.  There 
is  a  practice  in  some  countries — and  an  attempt,  I 
believe,  has  been  made  to  naturalize  it  in  this — of 
holding  what  is  called  a  battle  of  flowers.  This 
means  that  in  idle  sport  these  gifts  of  God  are  flung 
about  recklessly,  are  prevented  from  fulfilling  their 
course  and  ripening  seed  to  perpetuate  their  kind, 
plucked  not  that  they  may  gladden  the  eyes  and 
brighten  the  dulness  of  those  who  dwell  in  the  stony 
wilderness  of  a  great  city,  but  that  they  may  move 
children  of  larger  growth  to  a  foolish  mirth,  and  then 
be  trampled  underfoot  like  worthless  and  contemptible 
things.  There  is  something  tender,  something  touch- 
ing, in  the  sentiment  exhibited  by  the  flower-services 
sometimes  held  at  this  season,  even  though  they  are 
apt  to  lead  to  a  waste  of  flowers ;  but  those  who  fling 
the  same  about  merely  for  destruction,  put  wealth 
to  an  ill  purpose,  and  show  the  heart  of  the  savage 
beneath  all  their  purple  and  fine  linen. 

To  some  what  I  have  been  saying  may  seem  poetic 
sentiment  and  fruitless  fancy.  It  is,  I  believe,  real 
and  important  truth.  Faulty  religious  teaching, 
mistaken  theological  ideas,  have  closed  the  eyes  of 
numbers  of  men  and  women  to  that  great  book  of 
nature,  the   pages    of   which   are    daily  turned,   the 


268  THE   LILIES  OF   THE  FIELD. 

volumes  of  which  are  yearly  renewed  by  the  power  of 
God.  The  book  of  the  revelation  of  the  written  Word 
is  great,  it  is  inestimably  precious ;  but  why  on  this 
account  should  we  refuse  to  listen  to  that  other  voice, 
which  is  no  less  the  voice  of  God  ?  We  pride  ourselves 
upon  our  wisdom,  yet  we  have  forgotten  truths  which 
were  well  known  by  the  men  of  olden  time.  The  Jew 
found  himself,  in  his  fields  and  his  vineyards,  his 
sheep-downs  and  forests,  face  to  face  with  God;  the 
earlier  Christians  sought  the  wilderness  when  the}^ 
would  find  Him.  The  Bible  again  and  again  takes  up 
the  note  of  thanksmvino^  for  the  works  of  God.  We 
also,  if  we  would  purge  ourselves  from  the  worship  of 
idols — be  they  set  up  in  things  spiritual  or  things 
temporal — must  submit  to  go  back  to  the  simple 
teaching  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  learn  from 
the  lilies  of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of  the  air  the 
great  lesson  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God ;  for  when  that 
is  realized  in  our  hearts  and  lives,  all  other  things 
shall  be  added  to  it. 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL.i 

Whence  came  evil ;  what  was  its  origin  ?  This 
is  an  old  question,  for  it  is  more  easy  to  ask  than  to 
answer.  It  is  a  difficulty  which  cannot  fail  to  arise, 
so  soon  as  man  has  become  conscious  of  moral 
responsibility  and  has  recognized  God  as  Creator  and 
Lord  of  all  things.  Thus  any  discussion  might  seem 
idle,  for  by  this  time  the  problem  should  have  been 
either  solved  or  admitted  to  be  inscrutable.  But  in 
the  past  it  has  been  regarded  mainly  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  metaphysician  or  the  theologian ;  the 
advance  of  knowledge  during  late  years  has  intro- 
duced new  factors  into  the  discussion.  We  have 
learnt  much  concerning  the  past  history  of  the  earth 
and  our  own  race;  our  knowledge  of  the  relation 
between  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  natures  in 
ourselves  has  vastly  increased.  New  facts  have  risen 
up  on  our  horizon,  of  which  we  must  take  account 

'  The  substance  of  a  paper  read  at  Sion  College  on  February  24, 
1890,  delivered  as  an  afternoon  lecture  at  St.  Philip's,  Kegent  Street, 
on  the  Fifth  Sunday  in  Lent. 

269 


270  THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

in  framing  any  hypothesis  in  regard  to  man  and  his 
motives.  In  short,  whether  we  like  it  or  not,  dis- 
trustful as  we  may  feel  of  the  new-comer,  doubtful 
whether  it  be  friend  or  foe,  we  are  compelled  to 
adopt  methods  of  inquiry  which  are  more  strictly 
scientific.  Thus,  while  we  are  beginning  to  recognize 
more  clearly  that  the  provinces  of  theology  and 
science  are  distinct,  that  we  must  not  look  to  the 
former  to  teach  us  the  latter,  or  fear  that  the  latter 
can  be  in  essential  contradiction  with  the  former,  we 
now  prefer  facts  to  phrases,  and  inductions  to 
authorities. 

I  purpose,  then,  in  the  rem  arks  which  I  am  about 
to  make,  to  abstain  from  investigating  the  past 
history  of  the  subject.  I  shall  not  quote  what  has 
been  written  by  others,  or  attempt  to  discuss  the 
problem  from  a  point  of  view  strictly  metaphysical ; 
nor  shall  I,  except  indirectly,  regard  it  from  that  of 
theology,  or  seek  to  solve  a  difficulty  by  quotations, 
either  from  a  Father  of  the  Church  or  from  Scripture 
itself.  The  latter  undoubtedly  have  their  place  and 
their  value,  but  there  is  sometimes  a  distinct  gain 
in  regarding  a  difficult  subject  from  a  new  point  of 
view.  Let  us,  then,  try  to  look  at  it  from  that  of  a 
student  of  science,  to  whom  the  book  of  nature  is 
more  familiar  than  the  volumes  of  theologians,  who 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL,  271 

dares  hope  to  find  in  it  some  light  which  may  illumi- 
nate dark  sayings  even  in  the  Word  of  God. 

We  assume,  indeed — and  this,  no  doubt,  is  a  theo- 
logical position — that  God  is  the  Author  of  all  things, 
and  that  He  is  perfect  goodness.     If,  then,  this  be 
accepted— as   it    must  be    by   all   Christians — what 
account  is  to  be  given  of  the  origin  of  evil  ?     The 
inquiry,   however,   at    once    suggests   a   preliminary 
question,  an  answer  to  which  is  imperatively  demanded, 
namely,  What  do  we  mean  by  the  word  "  evil "  ?    This 
is  commonly  assumed  to  be  as  definite  in  its  meaning 
as  a  mathematical  term ;  yet  in  reality,  to  most  of  us, 
its  position  in  our  verbal  exchange  is  not  unlike  that 
which  a  Chinese  silver  coin  would  occupy  in  a  busi- 
ness transaction.     We  should  have  a  rough  notion, 
but  no  precise  idea  of  its  value  in  currency.     Thus 
we  can  hardly  listen  to  an  argument  or  take  up  a 
book  without  detecting  traces  of  confusion  in  thought 
and  vagueness  in  expression  which  are  due  to  this 
uncertainty.     Indeed,   in  common   speech   the   word 
"  evil "  is  used  to  connote  two  ideas  widely  distinct, 
different,  as  I  believe,  in  their  inception,  even  though 
they  become  entangled  and  sometimes  almost  insepar- 
able in  the  complicated  nature  and  history  of  man. 

Physical  and  moral  evil— to  use  the  ordinary  quali- 
fying terms,  and  admit  for  the  moment  the  double 


272  THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

sense  of  the  noun — are  commonly  supposed  to  be 
similar  in  nature,  and,  so  far  as  this  world  is  con- 
cerned, identical  in  origin.  Many  persons,  I  believe, 
would  tell  you  that  both  were  the  consequence  of  the 
fall  of  man  (of  which  phrase  I  do  not  at  present 
discuss  the  meaning).  There  is  in  the  tenth  book  of 
the  Paradise  Lost  a  well-known  passage,  from  which 
I  will  select  some  extracts  : — 

"  At  that  tasted  fruit 
The  sun,  as  from  Thyestean  banquet,  turned 
His  course  intended.  .  .  .  Thus  began 
Outrage  from  lifeless  things ;  but  Discord  first, 
Daughter  of  Sin,  among  the  irrational 
Death  introduced,  through  fierce  antipathy. 
Beast  now  with  beast  'gan  war,  and  fowl  with  fowl, 
And  fish  with  fish :  to  graze  the  herb  all  leaving, 
Devoured  each  other." 

These  words,  I  think,  give  a  very  fair  summary  of 
the  view  which  is  held  generally  by  the  uneducated, 
and  not  very  seldom  even  by  theologians. 

Now,  what  can  we  learn  from  science  as  to  the 
date  of  the  incoming  of  pain,  disease,  and  death  to 
this  earth  ?  The  general  tenor  of  the  answer,  if  we 
attach  any  value  to  inductive  processes  and  results, 
is  beyond  dispute. 

Thus  Science  replies  :  The  crust  of  the  earth  is  a 
great  charnel-house.  Death  hath  reigned  on  it  from 
the   beginning.     Predaceous   animals    date    from    an 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  Zll 

early — perhaps  a  very  early — period  in  its  history, 
and  even  the  herbivorous  cannot  have  moved  about 
or  fed  without  being  the  cause  of  injury  or  death  to 
those  smaller  and  weaker  than  themselves.  We  are 
fully  justified  in  maintaining  that  the  earth,  even 
before  life  began,  was  subject  to  physical  forces — 
such  as  gravitation,  heat,  electricity — identical  with 
those  which  still  operate.  Hence,  unless  we  suppose 
that  organized  beings  were  endowed  with  properties 
of  which  we  have  no  knowledge,  and,  things  being 
as  they  are,  can  form  no  conception,'' they  could  not 
escape  from  the  pain  and  suffering  to  which  they  are 
at  present  exposed  in  their  natural  state  of  life. 

Suppose,  however,  that  to  the  statement,  "Death 
reigned  from  the  beginning,"  it  were  answered,  "  Yes, 
but  death  may  have  been  painless— even  pleasurable, 
like  falling  asleep  ? "  But  is  it  possible  for  an  animal 
capable  of  sensation  to  receive  an  injury  without  the 
consequent  pain  ?  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of 
the  capacity  for  a  pleasurable  sensation  existing  in 
beings  constituted  as  those  of  which  we  know,  with- 
out admitting  a  capacity  for  the  contrary  sensation ; 
there  can  be  little  or  no  doubt  that,  as  a  rule,  each  is 
perceived  with  corresponding  acuteness.  Moreover, 
pain  in  many  cases  results  from  either  the  absence  or 
the  excess  of  that  which  is  pleasurable.  For  instance, 
T 


274  ^^^   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

a  certain  temperature  produces  in  myself,  but  not 
necessarily  in  another  person,  the  sensation  of 
pleasure.  Less  than  this  or  more  than  this  would 
cause  in  me,  and  might  cause  in  both,  a  sensation  of 
pain. 

Further,  in  many  cases  pain  is  either  protective  in 
its  effects — as  when  it  serves  to  warn  us  of  danger — 
or  a  stimulus  to  exertion.  If,  then,  we  suppose  the 
world  to  have  been  subject  in  the  past  to  the  laws 
which  now  exist,  pain  and  pleasure  are  inseparable 
from  its  order ;  indeed,  have  been  the  dominant  factors 
in  its  evolution,  as  they  must  be  in  every  system  of 
education.  Pain  is  as  inseparable  from  pleasure,  as 
shadow  from  light,  cold  from  heat.  Under  the  exist- 
ing order  of  things  there  is  a  necessary  dualism, 
though  it  is  not  that  of  the  Manichee.  So,  if  we 
use  the  word  "  evil "  in  its  physical  sense,  as  meaning 
sickness,  pain,  and  death,  we  have  no  choice  but  to 
admit  that  these  are  inseparable  from  the  present  order 
of  nature,  and  must  have  entered  into  its  original 
design,  whatever  form  of  teleology  we  may  adopt. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  consider  moral  evil,  which  is 
generally  meant  when  the  word  "  evil "  is  used  in  its 
stricter  sense.  How  came  this  into  the  world ;  what 
was  its  beginning  ?  If  we  regard  God  as  the  Creator 
of  all  things,  are  we  not  driven  to  regard  Him  as  the 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  275 

Author  of  evil ;  and  if  so,  what  follows  ?  So  far  as 
this  world  is  concerned,  people  have  been  content 
generally  to  regard  evil  as  an  importation  from  with- 
out— though  this,  of  course,  only  shifts  the  main 
difficulty  rather  further  back.  But  .can  we  predicate 
an  independency  of  origin  and  absoluteness  of  exist- 
ence for  moral  evil  ?  Are  we  right  in  assuming  it,  as 
so  many  appear  to  do,  to  be  a  positive  ?  Antagonistic 
as  it  may  be  to  good,  is  it  not,  under  the  existing 
order,  correlative  to  some  extent  with  it  ?  They  are 
opposites,  it  is  true,  because  a  thing  cannot  be  at  once 
sweet  and  sour ;  but  correlative,  and  in  thought  in- 
separable, because  a  necessary  consequence  of  hetero- 
geneity. Ought  we  not,  then,  to  regard  evil,  at  any 
rate  in  its  inception,  whatever  complications  may 
afterwards  arise,  as  a  relative  ? — much  as,  in  the 
physical  order,  darkness  is  relative  to  light  ?  Light 
is  a  positive ;  it  is  a  mode  of  motion.  Darkness  is  a 
negative — a  non-existent;  no  motion.  Our  percep- 
tion of  it  also  is  relative,  dependent  on  the  environ- 
ment of  the  perceiver.  It  is  dark  to  me  when  it  is 
not  so  to  a  bat  or  an  owl,  and  they  are  blinded  with 
excess  of  light  when  I  can  see  distinctly. 

Perhaps  we  may  arrive  at  a  clearer  understanding 
by  tracing  out  in  a  particular  instance  the  develop- 
ment of  our  idea  of  evil.     Hunger,  to  any  organized 


276  THE    ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

beino-,  is  the  stimulus  to  obtain  food,  which  is  needful 
for  the  maintenance  of  life.     Suppose  that  I  leave  my 
food  for  a  time  unprotected  in  some  desert  place.     A 
hungry  wild  dog  passes  by  and  snaps  it  up.     We  say 
the  dos  steals  it,  but  I  think  no  one  would  seriously 
affirm  that  the  animal  had  done  evil.    I  might,  indeed, 
kill  it,  but  should  do  this  on  the  principle  that  there 
was  not  room  for  both  of  us  in  the  world,  and  so  I,  as 
the  stronger  and,  in  my  own  opinion,  the  more  im- 
portant of  the  two,  elected  to  be  the  survivor.     My 
own  dog,  in  like  case,  I  should  chastise ;  the  punish- 
ment, however,  would  not  have  a  moral  aim — though, 
being   inflicted   for   educational    purposes,   it    would 
come  near  this — but  its  intent  would  be  to  procure  for 
myself  a  security  from  future  loss,  which  in  the  other 
case  I  knew  could  not  be  obtained  by  a  mild  remedy. 
If  a  very  young  child  were  the  thief,  we  should  view 
the  action  in  precisely  the  same  light.     Having  an 
eye  to  the  future,  we  should  indicate  displeasure ;  but 
we  should  not  regard  the  action  as  a  crime,  because, 
as  we  say,  "  he  knows  no  better."     But  if  the  child 
were    older,   we    should    say   he    had   done   wrong, 
because  we  suppose  him  to  have  acquired  some  idea 
that  it  is  better  to  suffer  than  to  steal ;  yet  even  here 
we  should  estimate  his  guilt  in  accordance  with  the 
extent  of  his  need  and  the  defect  of  his  education. 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  277 

If,  however,  a  well-fed  and  well-taught  child  were  to 
steal  simply  for  the  sake  of  a  dainty  morsel,  we  should 
regard  the  action  as  a  grave  moral  wrong,  and  requite 
it  accordingly. 

Here,  then,  the  act  is  one  and  the  same ;  yet  in  its 
moral  aspect  it  is  very  differently  regarded ;  namely, 
from  not  evil  at  all,  to  being  very  evil. 

Apply  the  same  method  of  examination  to  all  sorts 
of  wrongs  and  crimes,  and  you  will  find  that  you  can 
trace  them  back  to  an  obedience  to  some  impulse  or 
instinct  which  operates  in  the  animal  either  for  the 
preservation  of  the  individual  or  for  the  perpetuation 
of  the  race. 

At  first  sight  this  statement  may  seem  questionable, 
but  I  believe  that  on  investigation  it  will  be  found 
to  hold  good.  Murder,  for  example,  is  the  misuse  of 
instincts  the  end  of  which  is  self-preservation;  lust, 
the  abuse  of  sensations  which  lead  to  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  species.  Even  a  crime  like  forgery,  the 
illegitimate  ofispring,  as  we  think  it,  of  civilization,  is 
prompted  by  the  desire  to  obtain  the  means  of  living 
or  of  enjoyment,  a  desire  which  is  the  outcome  of 
instincts  of  self-preservation.  Very  often  the  right 
or  wrong  in  an  action  is  entirely  determined  by  the 
motive  of  the  doer,  and  we  admit  tacitly  that  evil, 
if   it   exist,  is   relative   rather   than    absolute.     For 


278  THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

instance,  there  are  cases  in  which  most  persons, 
perhaps  all,  will  admit  that  killing  is  no  murder,  or 
is  even  a  righteous  act. 

What,  then,  causes  the  difference  in  the  moral  value 
of  actions  in  themselves  identical  ?  Evidently  it  is 
the  impulse  which  has  been  obeyed  in  doing  it.  But 
why  do  we  view  this  in  different  lights  in  different 
individuals  ?  Because  we  tacitly  and  implicitly  assume 
that  two  impulses  have  contended  for  mastery  in  the 
one  person,  and  that  the  lower  of  these  has  been 
obeyed.  As  "  lower  "  and  "  higher  "  are  relative  terms, 
and  as  we  have  no  right  (at  any  rate,  as  Christians), 
when  there  is  but  one  impulse,  to  speak  of  this  as 
evil  in  itself — for  that  would  be  taking  up  the  position 
of  a  Manichgean — it  would  appear  that  the  idea  of 
choice  in  beings  constituted  as  we  are  involves,  by 
implication,  that  of  evil,  because  in  speaking  of 
"  choice "  we  assume  the  existence  of  a  relatively 
better  and  worse.  A  physical  illustration  may  serve 
to  bring  out  my* meaning.  Suppose  that,  wittingly 
and  without  good  reason,  I  take  that  which  I  know 
to  be  the  less  beneficial  to  me — say  I  eat  something 
which  I  am  convinced  is  unwholesome.  I  have  obeyed 
the  law  of  self-preservation  in  its  letter  and  not  in  its 
spirit ;  that  is  to  say,  by  yielding  to  an  appetite  (the 
end  of  which  is  self-preservation),  I  have  injured  my 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  279 

health,  and  thus  produced  an  opposite  result.  I  have 
chosen  to  follow  the  narrower  view  of  the  law,  and 
thus  I  have  done  evil,  while  one  who  had  acted  in 
ignorance  would  still  be  innocent,  though  the  physical 
penalties  in  both  cases  would  be  the  same. 

Extend  the  application  of  this  principle,  and  it 
follows  that  a  course  of  action  may  be  right  at  one 
period  of  the  world's  history  which  is  wrong  at 
another.  For  instance,  at  a  particular  epoch  it  might 
have  been  right  to  punish  one  who  had  wronged  us, 
but  in  the  present  age,  when  wider  views  of  man's 
nature  and  his  relationships  have  prevailed,  it  may  be 
better,  under  the  same  circumstances,  to  pardon  him. 
The  line  of  action  which  once  would  have  been  right 
now  would  be  wrong,  because  we,  knowing  both  the 
lower  and  the  higher  law,  choose  to  obey  the  former. 

It  follows,  then,  that  if,  in  beings  organized  as  we 
are,  we  assume  a  power  of  choice  and  the  existence  of 
impulses  tending  to  progress,  we  must  admit  the 
possibility  of  a  refusal  to  obey  those  impulses,  and 
thus  regard  evil  as  the  inevitable  shadow  of  the  good. 
Thus  any  creatures  which  are  living  in  perfect 
harmony  with  their  environment  (using  that  word  in 
its  widest  sense)  are  good,  but  the  alteration  of  the 
environment,  if  it  tend  to  raise  them  to  a  higher  plane 
of  existence,  supposing  them  to  be  free  agents,  would 


28o  THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

open  to  them  the  opportunity  of  becoming  evil. 
Formerly  their  moral  equilibrium  would  have  been 
stable.  The  alteration  of  the  conditions  has  rendered 
this  unstable,  and  they  become  capable  of  evil. 

Let  us  now  consider  how  evil  may  have  first  arisen 
in  the  case  of  man.  So  far  as  regards  his  physical 
structure,  it  is  impossible  to  separate  him  from  other 
living  creatures.  Such  difierences  as  there  may  be 
are  those  of  degree,  not  of  kind.  So  far  as  his  body 
is  concerned,  there  is  nothing  to  suggest  an  origin  for 
it  different  from  that  of  their  bodies.  We  cannot, 
of  course,  deny  that  it  may  result  from  a  special  act 
of  creation;  but  analogy,  so  far  from  favouring,  is 
rather  adverse  to  this  idea. 

All  attempts  to  establish  a  difference  in  kind 
between  the  bodily  frame  of  man  and  that  of  animals 
have  been  complete  failures.  I  cannot  say  that  the 
efforts  to  claim  for  him  the  sole  possession  of  reason 
have  been  more  successful.  If  the  true  man  differs, 
as  I  believe  that  he  does  differ,  from  the  rest  of  the 
animal  world,  it  is  by  the  addition  of  something 
which  we  hold  to  be  the  special  gift  of  God — that  by 
which  he  becomes  capable  of  attaining  to  the  know- 
ledge of  God  and  to  an  immortal  life.  The  presence 
of  this  gift  in  man  can  neither  be  proved  nor  be 
disproved  by  science.     Our  investigations  bring  us  no 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  281 

further  than  this — that  there  are  phenomena  in  the 
world  very  difficult  to  explain  on  a  merely  mechanical 
theory  of  the  genesis  of  the  universe,  and  facts  in 
history  which  seem  inexplicable  on  the  hypothesis 
that  man  is  no  more  than  an  animal.  Suppose,  now, 
that  man's  body,  instead  of  being  the  result,  as  has 
generally  been  believed,  of  a  special  act  of  creation, 
had  arisen,  by  gradual  and  progressive  stages  of 
development,  from  less  perfectly  organized  animal 
forms,  in  obedience  to  that  great  law  of  evolution 
which  seems  to  have  been  prevalent  in  this  world 
since  the  dawn  of  life.  Suppose,  in  short,  that  the 
body  of  man  were  in  its  origin  truly  animal — inheritor 
of  the  same  instincts,  animated  by  the  same  vitality. 
Suppose,  then,  that  in  such  a  creature  were  implanted 
an  impulse — call  it  what  you  will — to  live  no 
longer  in  obedience  to  the  instincts  which  actuated 
the  remainder  of  the  animal  world,  to  follow  a  path 
which  had  been  trodden  by  no  predecessor,  to  com- 
mence the  ascent  of  a  mountain  range,  the  summit 
of  which  was  lost  in  the  clouds,  instead  of  roaming 
contentedly  over  the  plains  below.  Such  a  being- 
would  at  once  become  capable  of  evil.  Conceive  such 
a  one  placed  in  a  position  which  gave  some  special 
advantage  to  the  new  impulse,  and  tended  to  deaden 
the    inherited   instincts    when  they   might   mislead. 


282  THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

Such  a  creature  would  be  sinless  in  nature,  because 
its  inherited  tendencies  would  be  those  of  obedience 
to  law,  for  up  to  that  time  it  had  never  been  invited 
to  disobey.  It  would  be  the  first  of  a  new  race,  with 
responsibilities  which  were  unknown  to  any  prede- 
cessor. But  it  would  not  follow  that  these  were  as 
far-reaching  and  as  complicated  as  those  which  have 
affected  the  successors  of  that  creature.  It  is  enough 
that  there  was  an  opportunity  of  choice  between 
obedience  to  the  higher  law  (whether  prohibitive  or 
directive),  and  following  the  course  suggested  by 
the  animal  instincts.  The  moral  nature  of  such  a 
creature,  though  for  a  time  it  be  sinless,  is  obviously 
in  unstable  equilibrium ;  and,  we  may  add,  is  likely, 
when  once  the  disturbance  occurs,  to  depart  further 
from  its  original  condition. 

The  equilibrium  was  maintained  so  long  as  the 
instinct,  which  might  ultimately  disturb  it,  was 
dormant — very  much  as  in  the  individual,  for  a 
time,  certain  kinds  of  evil,  though  always  potentially 
present,  are  excluded  by  the  undeveloped .  condition 
of  certain  organs  in  the  body.  But  after  a  disturb- 
ance of  equilibrium,  the  effect  of  heredity  would  be 
unfavourable  to  recovery,  because  the  innate  instincts 
of  conformity  to  the  environment,  which  is  no  longer 
in  the  old  relation  to  the  individual  and  the  race,  may 


THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  283 

work  in  the  wrong  direction,  and  cause  as  vigorous  a 
resistance  to  the  upward  tendency  as  it  should  have 
done  to  the  downward.  The  balance  of  such  a  nature 
once  disturbed,  it  is  thrown  into  a  confusion  from 
which  it  can  never  emerge  by  any  natural  process. 
The  slow  effect  of  environment  may  result  in  the 
high  development  of  these  tendencies,  and  the  partial 
abortion  of  those  ;  but  even  then  there  will  be  indi- 
vidual irregularity — "throwings  back,"  as  they  are 
called,  which  will  interfere  with  anything  like  a 
perfect  symmetry.  Moreover,  it  is  not  probable  that 
by  merely  natural  processes  any  very  perfect  moral 
development  will  be  attained,  because  the  environ- 
ment favours  the  development  of  the  animal  far  more 
than  of  the  spiritual  nature.  The  latter  bases  its 
claim  to  obedience  on  things  of  which  the  senses  cannot 
take  cognizance ;  but  hunger,  thirst,  cold,  nakedness, 
are  often  grim  realities.  The  pleasures  derived  from 
the  gratification  of  the  bodily  appetites  are  real,  they 
may  be  said  to  have  an  objective  existence ;  while 
those  resulting  from  the  due  exercise  of  the  spiritual 
appetites,  at  any  rate  to  a  great  extent,  are  subjective. 
If,  then,  we  feel  ourselves  compelled  by  the  results 
of  scientific  investigations  to  admit  for  the  body  of 
man  the  same  origin  as  for  those  of  animals,  we  are 
placed  in  a  position  which  enables  us  to  offer  a  simple 


284  THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

explanation  of  the  origin  of  evil.  The  mere  animal, 
in  harmony  with  its  environment,  was  good  in  its 
generation.  But  by  the  addition  to  it  of  that 
mysterious  gift,  commonly  called  a  soul,  evil  became 
at  once  possible,  because  then  that  which  had  been 
good,  viz.  obedience  to  the  earlier  laws,  now  became 
evil,  as  involving  a  disobedience  to  the  newer  and 
higher  laws.  The  principle  of  heredity,  to  use  a 
scientific  term,  indicates  that ''  the  infection  of  nature 
must  remain  even  in  the  regenerate,"  for  the  simple 
reason  that  it  was  always  there,  only  it  did  not 
become  an  "  infection  "  till  some  particular  epoch,  and 
it  cannot  disappear  so  long  as  this  bodily  frame 
continues. 

Before  I  conclude,  it  may  be  well  to  notice  an 
objection  which  some  have  felt.  It  may  be  briefly 
expressed  thus :  that  by  tracing  evil  to  an  obedience 
on  the  part  of  man  to  his  physical  nature,  we  inter- 
fere with  the  due  appreciation  of  moral  responsibility. 
How  can  you,  it  is  said,  hold  a  man  morally  respon- 
sible for  obedience  to  a  propensity  which  you  assert 
to  be  innate,  and  thus  to  be  a  part  of  the  man  himself, 
as  much  as  a  tendency  to  scrofula  or  other  maladies  ? 
Of  this  objection  I  cannot  see  the  force.  Society, 
which  punishes  crime  chiefly  with  a  deterrent  purpose, 
recoo^nizes  in  certain  extreme  cases  that  the  individual 


THE    ORIGIN  OF  EVIL.  285 

is  not  responsible,  and  that  the  legal  penalty  ought 
not  to  be  inflicted.  As,  for  example,  when  an  insane 
person  commits  a  murder,  he  is  not  executed,  but  is 
kept  under  ward  for  the  security  of  the  public.  There 
may,  then,  be  cases  where  the  commission  of  sin,  as  we 
call  it,  entails  no  guilt,  because  the  offender  is  morally 
insane.  But  in  regard  to  this  we  have  no  means 
available  for  forming  a  judgment :  that  must  be  left 
to  Him  Who  sees  with  larger  eyes  than  ours.  With 
such  questions  we  can  only  deal  as  society  does  with 
crime,  namely,  by  acting  on  the  facts  within  our 
cognizance ;  and  we  cannot  even  make  the  same 
exceptions,  because  we  have  no  criteria  of  moral 
insanity.  Of  course,  if  we  asserted  that  man  was  no 
more  than  an  animal,  we  should  admit  that  he  was 
not  morally  responsible  for  his  actions ;  but  when  we 
affirm  that  in  his  composite  nature  a  factor  exists, 
which  urges  him  to  resist  the  others  and  submit 
wholly  to  its  guidance,  then  we  assert  the  existence 
of  moral  responsibility.  In  this  inquiry  we  have 
only  endeavoured  to  throw  some  light  on  the  sources 
which  give  rise  to  temptation  and  eventuate  in  sin. 

The  remarks  which  I  have  made  apply  only  to  the 
world  of  which  we  have  cognizance  by  means  of  our 
senses.  Here  I  have  endeavoured  to  distinguish 
between    what    is   termed   physical   evil — viz.    pain, 


286  THE   ORIGIN  OF  EVIL. 

suffering,  and  those  things  which  are  misfortunes 
inseparable  from  the  present  order — and  moral  evil, 
to  indicate  how  under  changed  environment  conflict 
may  replace  harmony,  and  ultimate  good  be  the  cause 
of  temporary  ill. 

The  limitations  which  I  imposed  upon  my  inquiry, 
namely,  to  consider  it  from  the  side  of  science  rather 
than  of  revelation,  have  prevented  me  from  saying 
anything  about  the  existence  of  evil  among  orders  of 
beings  other  than  human,  and  of  their  possible  influ- 
ence upon  members  of  our  race;  but  it  is  obvious 
that  a  similar  line  of  reasoning  would  explain  its 
presence  among  beings  of  any  kind  in  any  part  of 
God's  universe,  for  there  is  no  reason  why  this  com- 
mand to  rise  "  on  stepping-stones  of  their  dead  selves 
to  higher  things  "  should  be  restricted  to  mankind. 


THE   END. 


(pi ' ' 


•1^-^'/ 


^^ 


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